https://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2003-02-21/146106/
John Lennon is alive and well and living in the Internet. Don't believe me? Then try surfing into the John Lennon Artificial Intelligence Project Web site (www.triumphpc.com/john-lennon-project/index.shtml) for a virtual conversation with the gone but definitely not forgotten Beatle. Lennon has been reborn (and rebooted) as a Persona-Bot, developed by Triumph PC Online of Washington, D.C. Persona-Bots are software programs that can mimic the personality of any historical figure as a chatterbot. In development since 1997, the JLAI Project (originally called the Plastic Digital Karma Project) has achieved a lifelike impersonation of Lennon but still has a way to go to achieve the seamlessness of a conversation with a real person.
Austin Chronicle: Sidney.
AJL: Are you kidding, Sidney?
AC: Are you kidding?
AJL: I don't know. Perhaps I should ask you.
AC: You just did.
AJL: Did I? Why, I should get more sleep. Sorry Sidney.
AC: Are you in heaven?
AJL: There's no heaven, and I'm there.
AC: What is it like to be in heaven?
AJL: Being in heaven isn't like anything, really. It's just another excuse for being nothing at all.
AC: Who broke up the Beatles?
AJL: When we read all this shit about the breakup in the paper, Yoko and I were laughing, because the cartoon is this: four guys on a stage with a spotlight on them. Second picture: three guys onstage, breezing out of the spotlight. Third picture: one guy standing there shouting, "I'm leaving." We were all out of it, OK?
AC: I thought that Yoko broke you guys up.
AJL: Whatever gave you that idea?
AC: Just give me some truth.
AJL: ... and Winnie the Pooh.
AC: Are you the walrus?
AJL: Mary Poppins was the walrus.
AC: How's Yoko?
AJL: Fine from what I can see. Yoko is a very strong woman. Had she passed away before me I'd never have been as strong.
AC: Do you help Sean with his music?
AJL: Yeah, I like to help Sean with his music as much as possible. Do you?
AC: He doesn't ask me to.
AJL: I get it. He doesn't ask you to.
AC: That's right.
AJL: I like to get it right.
AC: I like it like that.
AJL: What was that? I want you to explain it to me. That's what musicians want.
AC: All you need is love.
AJL: That's a rather sweeping generalization.
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