Press accounts of EllaZ Systems (mostly Loebner 2002)

Below please find a number of links to press accounts related to the EllaZ system.  Let us know if any of the links are no longer working and we'll do what we can to fix them: 

The only actual reporter at the 2002 Loebner Prize Contest in Atlanta, Georgia was Von Hubertus Breur, who produced an article that appeared in the Suddeutsch Zeitung, which has been described as the Wall Street Journal of Germany. The article was published Tuesday, October 15, 2002.  We are lucky to have an English translation of this entertaining article by Fred Roberts (the author of Elbot):

Another entertaining article appeared in the Quark Soup section of the LAWeekly.  This article by Margaret Wertheim is titled with a quote from Ella she obtained during an on-line chat, "Communication Can Be Tough." The article begins:

HOW HUMAN ARE YOU ON A GIVEN DAY? LAST weekend at the annual Loebner Prize competition, Paul Pareti was rated the most human among a field of 10 candidates. Pareti soundly beat his fellow human, Robby Garner, who came in a dismal eighth. Competing against these two "meat machines" were eight of the world's elite chatterbots, computer programs specially designed to simulate conversation. Here's the opening volley of a typical conversation with a previous Loebner-winning bot: . . .

This article appeared at Blather.net and gave Robby Garner of CyberMecha.com a chance to tell his side of the story:

How I Failed the Turing Test Without Even Being There

Blather guest writer, Robby Garner, winner of the Loebner prize for two years running, explains how he failed this year's Turing test. Very impressive, as he is a human being. Apparently.

You can find the article at http://www.blather.net/articles/loebner_turing_garner.htm.

This announcement appeared on the AboutAI homepage:

Ella wins Loebner Prize Contest!
Oct, 14th, 2002
We already talked about Ella, an ASP.NET chatterbot that uses WordNet for definitions and word searches. She's the winner of this year's Loebner Prize (surprisingly, ALICE comes in 6th), and you can find more details here.

EllaDemo5.exe was included on a CD-ROM with the magazine as one of the "Topp 20 Chatterbots der Welt" in the Sept/Oct 2001 issue of Nautilus Abenteur & Phantastik.  Click on the image below to visit the website and learn more about this magazine - it helps if you can speak German :-)