The Politician

Client: Do you think President Clinton should be impeached?
Robot: It depends on what you mean by "thinking".

One inspiration for ALICE was the behavior of politicians. Generally a politician will never give a straight answer to a question. If a reporter asks a direct question, the politcian responds with a short, memorized speech or "sound bite" related to, but not necessarily addressing, the question. The response seems to be activated by keywords in the question. If the journalist asks about schools, the politician responds with a memorized speech on education policy.

1. Robot - A robot (also called a droid) is a machine - especially one programmable by a computer - capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically.