[alicebot-general] ALICE - Virus Story Killed

[Dr. Rich Wallace]

A few weeks ago, we received a number of emails from people who claimed to
have had their computers infected with worms, virus, or keystroke logging
software downloaded via ALICE bots chatting on MSN networks. Although bots
had been linked to viruses before, this was the first time I had heard of
one being linked to the ALICE brain. It was particularly worrisome because
some versions of the ALICE free software gives out the email address
drwallace (at) alicebot.org and this website as its source of origin.

A journalist from the New Scientist contacted us about the story, and we
sent them copies of the original emails we had received. After a follow-up
investigation by their staff, it was determined that in every case, the
individuals had downloaded legitimate free ALICE software not known to
contain any viruses and simply had misunderstood how the programs were
supposed to work. Although usually we adhere to the rule all publicity is
good publicity, this is not necessarily the kind of publicity we wanted,
so in a way we were glad to see the New Scientist story die.

One perhaps unfortunate consequence of even drawing attention to the
matter, has been a spurt in open-source development of AIML-IM clients,
making it easier to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. But the horse is
out of the barn now, so we can only recommend that people using free ALICE
bots on IM networks adhere to their Terms of Service.