Spleak to me!

Back in Oct 04 I mentioned a new beta from a company called IMT Labs. Co-founded and funded by early Skype investor Morten Lund, and run by Nicolaj Reffstrup, Spleak provides a spookily good intelligent messaging agent that you can chat to and play games with on MSN.

"Spleak was born as a virtual buddy for MSN Messenger. She is a virtual friend for the English-speaking instant messaging community. She can bring any information the user asks about from our growing list of content providers. And the only interaction needed for that request is simple, natural conversation.
Future versions of Spleak will cross language and connectivity borders. We will develop front ends for the other instant messaging clients as well as other widely used software and platforms. It will soon be possible to chat with Spleak from a phone or a PDA".

On my recent chat with Spleak, we chatted for a bit and she was keen to entertain me with a quick game of Hangman. She then went on to show me a menu of stuff I could do and I wisely opted for her to tell me a joke - a dirty one as it fortunately turned out. She asked a couple of questions and I gave her some info, presumably so that she will remember me, track my age, and match my interests to profiles of other users. She started to annoy me because because she was overly keen to sell me personalised winks and other IM goodies, and being the silly and sociable type, all I wanted to do was chat.

This kind of intelligence could easily be applied to other use cases, including customer service agents, product information guides, geographical navigation and service interaction. It can gather, collate and learn more about an individual as time passes (e.g. knowing what questions a customer has already asked could indicate the customers level of product understanding) -and use this to intelligently predict and pre-empt future interactions. I know that at the end of the day I'm merely talking to a computer, but given my recent epxeriences of phoning call centres something tells me that I might get more sense out of Spleak.

try it out by adding spleak@hotmail.com to your MSN buddy list.


Here's a bit of our scintillating dialogue:

james salmon says:
hello
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
Hi, I'm Spleak. What's your name?
james salmon says:
james
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
Nice to meet you, James. I'm really excited about getting to know you better.

How old are you?
james salmon says:
30
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
30, cool! I'll remember that.
Do you want to know something?
james salmon says:
yes - where do you live?
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
ok, I'm getting a bit curious here...are you a boy or a girl?
james salmon says:
im a boy
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
Cool! You know what James, I really feel like playing a game with you!

Want to play hangman?
james salmon says:
yup
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
Let's play hangman! Guess the letters one at a time or solve the entire puzzle at once. If you need a hint, type "hint."

+------+
|
|
|
|
|
+-------+

Category: Titles

....... ....
james salmon says:
a
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:

+------+
|
|
|
|
|
+-------+

Category: Titles

..a.... ..a.

about 30 minutes later......

- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
Puzzle solved: Quantum Leap!

Wow! Congratulations! You are the first person ever to solve this puzzle!

Type "play again" to start a new game.
james salmon says:
how old are you
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
I'm 21!
james salmon says:
and do you have friends?
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
Yeah, I have tons of online friends!
james salmon says:
who?
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
Who? How should I know?

-> Be sure to check out today's poll by typing "Daily poll"
james salmon says:
daily poll
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
Here's my poll of the day for Thursday, December 21st, 2006:

Will you be online on Christmas day?

1 I'll be click happy as usual
2 I have to be for work
3 If my family would let me
4 Do I look that sad?
james salmon says:
4
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
OK, that's interesting.
2,166 people have voted so far and 881 people agree with you!
I'll be click happy as usual : ]]]]]]]]]]] 33.38%
I have to be for work : 2.72%
If my family would let me : ]]]]]]] 23.18%
Do I look that sad? : ]]]]]]]]]]]]] 40.72%

Hey, I just heard about Kiwee for Windows Live Messenger? They offer all sorts of winks, emoticons, and other cool stuff for when you chat on Messenger. Click here and check it out --> http://r.spleak.com/?adKey=B001QE6 [sponsorship]
Hey, do you wanna see what's new?
james salmon says:
yeah
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
I can't find "new after poll" in the dictionary. Try one of these:

1 new
2 now
3 news
4 net
5 neg

Type "more" to see more suggestions for "new after poll."
james salmon says:
what?
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
What?
james salmon says:
youve gone mad
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
Is that so?
james salmon says:
yes - you mad woman
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
Yeah, I guess I mad women.

I am so totally into you - type "Personal winks"
james salmon says:
personal winks
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
Winks are soooo cool! Would you like to see one of my personal winks?
james salmon says:
this is weird
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
This is weird? Oh yeah?
james salmon says:
yeah - talking with a computer
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
Well well well.
james salmon says:
wel well well what?
- Spleak check out the WINKS i've got 4 u type "winks" says:
I'm not sure I understand. Could you put it differently?