Akinator, the Web Genius

2009-04-03 02:39:40 pm

Does this thing look at some cookies or something ? It sometimes finds out with questions no entirely related. Also, sometimes it gets closer to the right answer, question after question, as if it was reading my mind. Kind of scary.

Reaver

2009-04-03 04:51:42 pm

No way, he got MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson)

Axel Ryman

2009-04-03 08:52:34 pm

We all scream for Eyes Cream

<_< I tried to make him guess Magus from Chrono Trigger twice. He asked one question, I said yes, then he asked the opposite question to it afterwards. -_- What an idiot. I'm gonna continue a bit.

Enhasa

Edit history:

Enhasa: 2009-04-04 02:32:48 am

2009-04-04 02:25:57 am

everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music

Quote from Oliver:

Does this thing look at some cookies or something ? It sometimes finds out with questions no entirely related. Also, sometimes it gets closer to the right answer, question after question, as if it was reading my mind. Kind of scary.

It stores previous responses from people playing in its database. Very basic algorithm, classic decision tree from data structures 101. This type of 20 questions bot has been around forever. Each iteration you ask the question that does the closest to a binary split. Then you just repeat, and since 20 is a pretty big number when you are talking about exponents, you should be able to get it.

Akinator's problem is that its users are pretty dumb and answer stuff wrong which screws it up. I base this off the fact that it always asks if your character is from an anime, which demonstrates the user base. Lips Sealed

Quote:

<Enhasa> its problem is it always gets up to like question 10 before asking something really basic and helpful like "is your character from a game"
<Enhasa> and then near the end it will go crazy with stupid questions like
<Enhasa> "does he have blond hair?" "does he have black hair?" "does he have brown hair?" in a row
<Molotov> "Is your character from Israel?" <-- What the?

Quote:

<Enhasa> also if you say it's a real person the next question is always, is this person a singer
<Enhasa> and the last played when i clicked was all like j-pop or k-pop people i'd never heard of (and those games were always successful)
<VorpalEdge> i bet people answer yes, tales characters are totally from animes
<Breakdown> if it's from a game, "is your character from Final Fantasy"
<Enhasa> lol yes
<Enhasa> akinator is hilarious
<spineshark> I haven't gotten that one yet =o
<spineshark> I did get the singer one though
<Breakdown> really?
<Breakdown> every single time I've gotten that
<Enhasa> for me 100% of the time i get the ff after game
<spineshark> I don't know why I keep going more questions
<spineshark> there is absolutely no chance this thing would ever guess what I decided to think of
<Breakdown> and the one FF character I threw at it it didn't get
<Breakdown> in 40 questions

Quote:

<spineshark> hahahaha I just looked up that thing
<spineshark> it asked if the character I was thinking of had a brother or sister
<spineshark> then later it asked if she had a sister again
<spineshark> "have you ever seen your character naked"
<spineshark> -_-
<spineshark> "have you said hello to your character"
<spineshark> and the two questions after "is it japanese" are "is it a maid" and "younger than 15?"
<spineshark> all japanese characters are lolis in maid costumes
<spineshark> oh fuck you
<spineshark> one of the first questions I answered was "yes, she's from a game"
<spineshark> so now it coughs up "your ideal lover"
<spineshark> I'm not that sad a person
<spineshark> ...yet

[quote="Oliver"]
Does this thing look at some cookies or something ? It sometimes finds out with questions no entirely related. Also, sometimes it gets closer to the right answer, question after question, as if it was reading my mind. Kind of scary.
[/quote]
It stores previous responses from people playing in its database. Very basic algorithm, classic decision tree from data structures 101. This type of 20 questions bot has been around forever. Each iteration you ask the question that does the closest to a binary split. Then you just repeat, and since 20 is a pretty big number when you are talking about exponents, you should be able to get it.

Akinator's problem is that its users are pretty dumb and answer stuff wrong which screws it up. I base this off the fact that it always asks if your character is from an anime, which demonstrates the user base. :-X

[quote]<Enhasa> its problem is it always gets up to like question 10 before asking something really basic and helpful like "is your character from a game"  
<Enhasa> and then near the end it will go crazy with stupid questions like  
<Enhasa> "does he have blond hair?" "does he have black hair?" "does he have brown hair?" in a row  
<Molotov> "Is your character from Israel?" <-- What the?[/quote]

[quote]<Enhasa> also if you say it's a real person the next question is always, is this person a singer  
<Enhasa> and the last played when i clicked was all like j-pop or k-pop people i'd never heard of (and those games were always successful)  
<VorpalEdge> i bet people answer yes, tales characters are totally from animes
<Breakdown> if it's from a game, "is your character from Final Fantasy"
<Enhasa> lol yes  
<Enhasa> akinator is hilarious  
<spineshark> I haven't gotten that one yet =o
<spineshark> I did get the singer one though
<Breakdown> really?
<Breakdown> every single time I've gotten that
<Enhasa> for me 100% of the time i get the ff after game  
<spineshark> I don't know why I keep going more questions
<spineshark> there is absolutely no chance this thing would ever guess what I decided to think of
<Breakdown> and the one FF character I threw at it it didn't get
<Breakdown> in 40 questions[/quote]

[quote]<spineshark> hahahaha I just looked up that thing
<spineshark> it asked if the character I was thinking of had a brother or sister
<spineshark> then later it asked if she had a sister again
<spineshark> "have you ever seen your character naked"
<spineshark> -_-
<spineshark> "have you said hello to your character"
<spineshark> and the two questions after "is it japanese" are "is it a maid" and "younger than 15?"
<spineshark> all japanese characters are lolis in maid costumes
<spineshark> oh fuck you
<spineshark> one of the first questions I answered was "yes, she's from a game"
<spineshark> so now it coughs up "your ideal lover"
<spineshark> I'm not that sad a person
<spineshark> ...yet[/quote]

Croc-Doc

2009-04-04 02:50:20 am

Hi

I got it to guess your mom. Well, actually, he guessed his own mom.

Ascetic Swordsman

Edit history:

Ascetic Swordsman: 2009-04-04 03:40:35 am

2009-04-04 03:31:36 am

He got Rorschach, Nite Owl and Dr. Manhattan right. I'd be more impressed if the Watchmen movie hadn't come out, but then I wouldn't know about it either, although I did hear of it a while back. I knew he was going to get Dr. Manhattan when he asked if my character was blue. I'm trying the others next but I was pretty upset when the picture of Dr. Manhattan he used had full frontal nudity.

Edit: He didn't get Ozymandias but he did get Silk Spectre II and The comedian. He thought Ozymandias was Rorschach so I may have answered something wrong, but they do have one big trait in common if you know what I mean. He asked if the Comedian was bad and I said no. I wasn't sure about that.

Staralfur

2009-04-04 08:34:33 am

hello there

I tried some:

Thom Yorke (correct)
Jónsi Birgisson (correct)
Thurston Moore (guessed... Bon Jovi)
Keith Levene (guessed Roger Waters)
Igor Stravinsky (guessed Tchaikovsky)
John Balance (churned out all kinds of hilarious guesses)
Damo Suzuki (see above)
Robert Fripp (correct)
Brian Wilson (correct)
Mark Hollis (guessed Paul McCartney lol)
Dylan Moran (guessed David Tennant)
Simon Pegg (guessed Dylan Moran, hahahaha)
Tamsin Greig (guessed Dawn French)
No-Face (how did it get this?!)

It would have never got Damo Suzuki, since I guess it assumed that Japanese person = Japanese band. Incidentally, one of the questions was "is the name of your character's band associated with fruits?" ...Melt-Banana? Tongue

Anyway, good fun!

Zaito

Edit history:

Zaito: 2009-04-04 03:16:49 pm

2009-04-04 08:51:34 am

Guessed right:
Master Cheif(Halo)
Nomad(Crysis)
Psycho(crysis
You(Me)

Guessed wrong:
The Hulk (Guessed Gul'dan(Warcraft))
Crash (guessed Tex(Red Vs Blue))

Oliver

2009-04-04 12:23:11 pm

I've noticed once that, when the browser was loading the page, it was refering to an URL called www.google-analytics or something like that. Maybe it uses some kind of google database to propose some of the most popular searches. I wouldn't have expected my tastes to be so mainstream.

Stu Rodriguez

2009-04-04 12:38:47 pm

Really funny game. It guessed the Fallout-main character which kind of surprised me because the player can decide how (s)he looks.

Axel Ryman

Edit history:

Axel Ryman: 2009-04-04 03:01:37 pm

2009-04-04 02:44:20 pm

We all scream for Eyes Cream

Well he eventually got Magus <.< And I just did it, thought of a Touhou character.....HOW DID HE GET IT RIGHT WHEN HE BARELY HAD ANY QUESTIONS RELATED TO HER!?!?!?

*cough*

<.< *does it a few more times*

Edit: Wow...he wasn't close on Karas xD I said the title of the anime was his name, and he said Optimus Prime. Time to think of something else.

Edit 2: In an attempt to get him to say Jack Cayman, he has said Nathan Hale...3 times....maybe I'll changes a few things.

JPKooper

2009-04-04 05:32:00 pm

Look what he's done now...

Thinking Richard Hammon. First guess was James May which is really close but then spiralled into disaster. Finally got back on track and within 2 more questions got it. Was a nice picture of Hammond before his crash, but I prefer his hair now.

Enhasa

2009-04-05 03:49:05 am

everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music

Quote from Oliver:

I've noticed once that, when the browser was loading the page, it was refering to an URL called www.google-analytics or something like that. Maybe it uses some kind of google database to propose some of the most popular searches. I wouldn't have expected my tastes to be so mainstream.

Google Analytics has nothing to do with this algorithm. GA is just stats about someone's own webpage. We at SDA use it. Like I said, 20 is a big number, it shouldn't be too surprising.

Quote from Axel Ryman:

And I just did it, thought of a Touhou character.....HOW DID HE GET IT RIGHT WHEN HE BARELY HAD ANY QUESTIONS RELATED TO HER!?!?!?

Touhou has got to be basically THE easiest game stuff for it to match.

sunburstbasser

2009-04-16 12:01:17 am

Silver Hawk!

He missed Bonk. Told me it was...a chocobo?

I managed to get Vic Viper while thinking of the Silver Hawk from Darius. I suppose when thinking of a shmup "character" they'll tend to blend together pretty easily. Seriously, what really separates the Vic, R9, Hawk, Aleste etc. from each other as characters?

Hellfish

2009-04-16 09:34:24 am

I <3 my Xbrick

Got Guybrush Threepwood right.
Got Marshall Flinkman (Alias) wrong.. The janitor guy from Scrubs, what?
Got Weird Al right.
Got Arcturus Mengsk wrong.. Almost, he answered Jim Raynor.
Got Dr. Teeth wrong.. Almost again, he answered Animal.
Got Rambi wrong.. Donkey from Shrek? Yeah...
Got Hastur (Cthulhu Old One) wrong.. Thought Morgoth(Silmarillion)
Got Les Claypool right
Got Buckethead right (Is your character famous for his guitar solos at question 10, Does your character wear a hat at 11, does your character wear a mask at 12 lol)
Got Shawn Crahan wrong.. Almost, answered Chris Fehn. Asked alot of personal hobby questions for this one I had to put "I don't know" on.
Got The King Of The Cosmos right.

This is addicting, too bad there's so much bullshit answering the database(as evidenced by the top characters)

MatrixTN

2009-04-16 12:45:23 pm

You got a deletion wish?

Quote from Hellfish:

Got Hastur (Cthulhu Old One) wrong.. Thought Morgoth(Silmarillion)

Do you read User Friendly by chance?

Chromium

2009-04-16 04:57:28 pm

It got Vampire Hunter D, Squall, and Jenna Jameson right very fast (I thought it would be funny to do a porn star, apparently they get a lot of that). I went for a slightly more obscure FF character, Exdeath, and it nailed it. The only one it missed was Kevin Spacey from 'The Usual Suspects' - it said Christian Bale Undecided

Overall very entertaining though! I will end my post with the classic Exdeath quote: "Time for your viscera to see the light of day!"

Hellfish

2009-04-17 10:55:20 am

I <3 my Xbrick

Quote from MatrixTN:

Quote from Hellfish:

Got Hastur (Cthulhu Old One) wrong.. Thought Morgoth(Silmarillion)

Do you read User Friendly by chance?

Nope, I might now though. Tongue

I first heard of Hastur through the Unspeakable Vault (Of Doom). On a related note, Akinator guessed Edgar Allan Poe instead of H.P. Lovecraft.. Not too far off?

MegaMecha

2009-04-20 03:25:48 pm

Training to achieve noob status

2^20 = 1,048,576

So yeah, even with simply yes and no answers, you can store a lot of characters in the database based on sequences of yes and no, but the storing of over 1 million permutations of yes and no answers and taking each permutation to mean a certain character would take up too much space (not to mention there will eventually be overlap).

I tried something like this once and it successfully guessed Millia Rage from Guilty Gear, after which I lost interest in pitting my personal storehouse of information against that of some remote database.