SmarterChild is a Smart One

Posted by kim on August 22, 2006

My girls have been infatuated with MSN Messenger lately. The three of them fight over the two laptops of who gets to chat next. Then they get depressed if none of their friends are online to talk to. In fact, once in awhile they will chat with each other from different rooms!

One of their friends told them about “SmarterChild” to chat with. I was a bit leery at first when Mallory told me she was chatting with a robot. I was scared that it was an online predator in disguise, especially when she asked how to spell our state because “SmarterChild” asked where she lived.

So I did some investigating. SmarterChild is an interactive agent built by Colloquis, Inc. I added them to my IM and started asking questions. It was actually fun to start asking harder questions, and there is no doubt about it that it is computerized. No human could respond that fast. It only asks where you live for demographic purposes, and is not necessary.

If you want to chat with SmarterChild,
For AIMâ„¢ or AOLâ„¢, add the screen name “SmarterChild” to your buddy listâ„¢.
For MSN Messengerâ„¢, add smarterchild@hotmail.com to your Contact List.
For ICQâ„¢, add 35000 to your Contact List.