I hope this hasn't been posted here, but check this out:

http://y.20q.net:8095/btest

It guessed what I was thinking of even though I wasn't sure how to answer some of the questions.

Hmm,... it said: You were thinking of something to do with sex.

Haha, what were you thinking

Uhm ... at one point, near the end, the AI asked me the question 'Does it bounce?'
Well, I had do answer that one with yes.

I wonder how big their database of object classes and questions is.

Bizaare. Hard to stump it.

Another "friend" (per the other thread) of mine said he stumped it with "alternator" I sort of did with a drinking glass, but it guessed coffee mug. I probably didn't answer the questions right though

I love the way it makes you look stupid by telling you which questions you answered wrong...

dang.... pretty close. I chose bacteria and it guessed yeast. Wrong, but a lot closer than I would have thought.

VERY smart.

Although it did ask me 'is it made of plastic' and then three questions later 'is it made of metal'...

I stumped it with "Pilot Boat", inspired by a different thread.

Wow, is that cool! I am also curious how many dimensions they use in their database and how large it is. It didn't get mine in 20 questions, but it got it in 26. I picked "crown".

Pretty cool:
You were thinking of a crown.
You said it is classified as Mineral, I say Other
Does it help accomplish tasks? you said Yes, I say No
Can you find it in a church? you said Yes, I say No
Was it invented? you said No, I say Yes

In its defense, I struggled with "was it invented". In a sense, anything with a name is "invented". I chose to view a crown as a statue or a painting, which one would not normally describe as "invented." I stick by my answers on the other questions, though.

At question 20 it guessed "meteorite". It went from meteorite to crown in 6 questions.

Jim

I was impressed that it got ``pomegranate'' in, IIRC, 8 questions.

I remember seing the exact same thing hosted at MIT a couple of years back. The term AI here is a bit of a misnomer since its intelligence is actually driven by the users of the tool and not the tool itself. I think this tends to be the first project of most graduate students studying AI. If it makes a guess, and guesses wrong - then it asks you to tell it what the answer is as well as a question that would lead to the answer, and every time thereafter it'll know the correct guess for that specific boolean tree path you've navigated it through. So, the tool doesn't work that well for the first 1000 times or so that people use it but as time goes on it just gets better and better at guessing the right answer. Quite effective!

- trs

I'd disagree that AI is a misnomer. Babies and programs both have to learn somehow, they don't just spring into existence knowing what everything is. This one is impressive because it doesn't just use a binary tree, it's got some fuzzy logic that figures out what is the closest match even if you have answered a quarter of the questions the opposite of what it expects. I did "stadium" and accepted it's answer of football stadium, which caused it complain that i'd said it was more than 100 years old, among other discrepancies. I'd say at this point that the database it's built up is better than most people playing 20 questions.

Is it thinking on it's own? No. Is it inteligent? I'd say so.

Matthew

I believe that that would be known as an ``expert system''. Perhaps a ``learning expert system''. Expert systems generally fall in the category of AI. Of course, it's not nearly as exciting as the scifi ideal of AI.

Yes - I'd agree with you. Misnomer was a poor choice of words. So, is its database larger than a bread box?

I tried to get it to guess empeg, and it guessed Music Box. I'd say that's damn intelligent. Not totally accurate - but damn intelligent.

- trs

I took it further and it wasn't able to figure out what I was thinking of. So it gave up and had me choose from a list of answers. I chose mp3 player and it disagreed with me. Obviously it has all the wrong pre-conceived notions of what a REAL mp3 player should be!!! Obviously none of the members of that website own an empeg.

EDITED: sorry, I meant to type that I chose an mp3 PLAYER, not an Mp3. damn typos.

- trs

Well, an mp3 is no more like an mp3 player than water is to a glass. If you were describing the latter, then the former would not be a correct answer.

I tried empeg as well... here were the results...
I am guessing that it is a sound card?
Yes , No , Close

29. I guess it a CD burner? Close.
28. Can you put something into it? Yes.
27. Does it have buttons? Yes.
26. Is it comforting? Yes.
25. Does it come in different colors? No.
24. Can you open it? Yes.
23. Is it smaller than a loaf of bread? Yes.
22. Can it be heard? Yes.
21. Would you use it in the dark? Yes.
20. I guess it a hard disk? Close.
19. Do you open and close it? Doubtful.
18. Is it heavier than a pound of butter? Yes.
17. Does it go inside other things? Yes.
16. Would you find it in an office? Yes.
15. Could it be found in a classroom? Irrelevant.
14. Does it help accomplish tasks? Yes.
13. Can you switch it on and off? Yes.
12. Is it made of metal? Yes.
11. Does it weigh more than a duck? No.
10. Does it require specific knowledge to use it? Yes.
9. Is it a common household object? No.
8. Is it heavy? No.
7. Do most people use this daily? No.
6. Does it play music? Yes.
5. Can you lift it? Yes.
4. Does it make sound? Yes.
3. Do you hold it when you use it? No.
2. Does it have writing on it? Yes.
1. It is classified as Other.

26. Is it comforting? Yes.

When it finally gives up - search for empeg to see if the answer exists - I couldn't do that since I already chose mp3 player.

- trs

No the choices available only got as close as hard drive, sound card, and mp3 player......

25. Does it come in different colors? No.

Shouldn't that be "Yes"? It came with different coloured lenses, even before DarkStorm's lenses were offered.

Maybe that's why it couldn't figure it out.

Yeah - I answered yes to that question then when I chose mp3 it dissagreed with me on that point. Maybe if enough of us try to get it to guess empeg - it'll finally learn.

- trs

Oops, apparently that site got slashdotted. Is currently down.