Leo and Dante - by Alan J. Brown

The author calls Leo "by far the most advanced learning bot on the web" and his follow-up Dante builds on that. Leo does not have a complicated set of rules dictating what to say when certain predefined key words are triggered (like many chatterbots on The Simon Laven Page). Instead Leo and Dante learn from the users who converse with them on the users own computer.

When you first start Leo or Dante, they already have some information in the database. This enables you to jump right in and start talking. It is possible to clear the database using the option on the file menu. You may want to do this if you want either of them to talk in a different language or if you wish to raise a chatterbot like a child.

Starting from a clear database can be frustrating. Because, like humans, they don't know much in the beginning they will only repeat back what you say to them. After a while it will start to use sentences from further back in the database. The aim is to make the database large enough them Leo to form their own sentences. This takes time, which is why they are both supplied with demo data.

Leo and Dante can be downloaded from http://www.geocities.com/barc0de/