[alicebot-archcomm] Re: [alicebot-general] Why do committees exist?

[Jon Baer]

Conan Callen wrote:

> Jon mentioned that he has presented many business plans involving
> Alice / AIML, why didnt they bite? What do you think they felt was
> missing or they were looking for? Undoubtably business people would be
> looking for an opertunity to experience a return on their investments.
> Were you able to present business opertunities with supporting financials
> showing a real return and they still passed?

It basically comes down to one thing and one thing alone, ROI.  The problems I faced were pretty basic things like
the ability to tap into databases and data sources outside the scope of what is in AIML or ALICE to begin with.
If you *really* look at it from the enterprise standpoint, you do not need AIML/XML @ all to some extent.  Then
the arguement of is it really worth companies time and money and resources to convert to AIML when you have other
things to deal with.  The key with ALICE is basically the methods by which a large accepted form of NLP becomes
the "de-facto" of how we think it should be done.

You also have to understand that myself, I have never experienced or been part of or used any of those commercial
products like Native Minds like Rich has, etc.  Its a big difference because Im sure their models (programming and
business) are on some type of track, even if ROI is low.

I will let you in on a personal note though that you might find funny, since it happened last week.  I got a call
from a recruiter asking my experience, etc, and doing an interview over the phone, and I was absolutely shocked
when she asked me if I had experience with AIML.  I did a triple take on the phone and made sure she was reading
that right.  I can't really comment on the company but it but it was for an "AI job" whatever that means.

Id like to think that Rich's vision is one that I'd like to share, in that @ this years Loebner, 1 human was
fooled, now I wasn't there to see it, but Id like to think that the rate would go up next year, into maybe 2 or 3
people would be fooled.  While Im still against a "contest" per se I think its a good measurement to date.  To me,
that is a keen research goal and something that takes money to support the minds who can make it happen.  But if
it turns out to be something that no one want's to buy, its like why invest @ all.  Its a fine line between the
academic research and commercial venture that I would LOVE to stay out of, but is there really any other way?

- Jon