Post

@neil

""Conversing" with a chatbot doesn't hold any attraction to me."

It's not a 'Chatbot' it's one of the dumbest names for a tool ever.
The name denotes function, especially in the eyes of new users.

It's an interface to a statistical model of human created and curated text corpus, trained to produce plausible continuations, with knowledge that's broad, uneven, and sometimes wrong, but sharper in the hands of a skilled operator.

You no less "converse" with it , than you "converse" with an encyclopaedia.

Though if it's conversation your after, you can construct a sophisticated pre-prompt.

@neil "Conversing" with a cat, however. Endless entertainment!

@neil Sometimes I want to people, as you describe.
Sometimes I don't want to people, at which point having a chatbot wanting to talk would be unbearable.

I am not a massive fan of peopling offline. I have to do it, and I do indeed do it, and with practice I have got better at it, but I don't particularly enjoy it.

Chatting online doesn't drain my energy in the same way. I can be tired, and still look forward to "logging on" and chatting.

Anyway, you lot are some of the people with whom I enjoy chatting online, and I am grateful for the opportunity :)