First of all, this is a very interesting question. I definitely wish I had more time to think about it and maybe put together some code - unfortunately I don't.
Clojure does sound like it would be good for this kind of processing. This is an ideal example of where it would be incredibly powerful to built up a domain specific language from Clojure using macros, allowing both the full expressivity of AIML and the full power of Clojure when necessary. That said, just from reading your post - Clojure is a much less specialized language than AIML appears to be, particularly in the area of pattern matching in the strings. You will either have to find a Java (or Clojure) library that does this, or write the Clojure yourself. It's definitely possible, but I'm afraid there's no way to avoid actually getting dirty and writing the pattern-finding code (unless you can find a library that does exactly what you want, and wrap it). My intuition is that it would be fairly easy to get something that just works - a lot can probably be done with Clojure's regular expression capability. But I have a feeling that in order to get high- performance code, you'll have to do a lot of indexing and caching which could potentially get complex. All in all, I think Clojure's a great language for this, but in order to replicate some of the advanced features of a made-for-ai specialized language you're going to have to do some non-trivial coding to basically recreate those features of AIML that are unique. This is true of Clojure or any other general-purpose programming language. Whether it's worth the effort is up to you, but if you can do a good job I bet there'd be a lot of interested people. It actually sounds very like the classic exercise of building a logic- based language similar to Prolog in Scheme or Lisp, only with an AI/ pattern matching functionality instead of a logic resolution engine. I'll look over your questions in more detail later, if I have time, and see if I can provide any more specific input. Thanks! -Luke On May 5, 12:16 pm, dhs827 <scheur...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > my name is Dirk Scheuring, I'm a writer based in Cologne, Germany, and > I want to write something about AI that can only be expressed by using > AI technology and technique. You could say that what I aim for is a > chatbot, but it's a bot that works quiet different from the norm; at > it's core, there is a functional program, and on the fringe, there's > lots of state information. > > I have a working prototype, written in AIML, the language in which the > famous Alicebot was written. Most bots written in AIML use a simple > stimulus-response conception of dialogue, without using (sequences of) > state, self-reflection, or other advanced concepts. So some people who > have only cursory knowledge of this language think that it's too > simple to be doing anything with that might be computationally > interesting. I know this to be false. > > AIML is sort of a micro-version of a Lisp, with String being the only > type, and recursion over everything (powerful and dangerous). You can > write serious functions with it [1], but you have to abuse it. And I > heavily abused the language to make it do what I want. I managed to > build a prototype that does something interesting, but only does it > for like ten conversational strokes, because then the interpreter's > stack overflows, causing an infinite loop. > > I need to implement my ideas in a different language - one that I > don't have to abuse to do complex stuff. I've looked at various > functional languages, and have now installed two, Scala and Clojure, > doing a couple tutorials at the respective REPLs. I have a hunch that > Clojure might turn out to be closer to what I already have in AIML, > but I'm not sure yet. Maybe you can help me decide. > > AIML is an XML dialect; its most important construct is the <category/>, > which has a <pattern/> and a <template/>. This is a default > > <category/>, which matches any string: > > <category> > <pattern>*</pattern> > <template> > <srai>SOMEFUNCTION</srai> > </template> > </category> > > The <srai/> element in the <template/> means that I invoke the pattern > matcher recursivly to match SOMEFUNCTION. How can I express this in > Clojure? > > The next primitive construction I need to translate is substitution: > > <category> > <pattern>* RAN *</pattern> > <template> > <srai><star index="1"/> RUNNING <star index="2"/></srai> > </template> > </category> > > This code matches the substring RAN in the middle of a set of other > substrings, and substitutes it for RUNNING, leaving the values before > and after it untouched for the next recursion. And I need to know how > to do: > > <category> > <pattern>* MADONNA *</pattern> > <template> > <think> > <set name="celebrity">Madonna</set> > </think> > <srai><star index="1"/> <star index="2"/></srai> > </template> > </category> > > The above category "extracts" a substring from the input and saves it > to a (global) variable; the other substrings are up for another round > of pattern matching. Another important low-level one is: > > <topic name="* MYTOPIC *"> > <category> > <pattern>*</pattern> > <template> > <srai>SOMEOTHERFUNCTION</srai> > </template> > </category> > </topic> > > This is again the catch-all <*> pattern, but in a context, represented > by the substring MYTOPIC in between these other substrings. So in this > case, the default <pattern/> has a <template/> that calls > SOMEOTHERFUNCTION. Is this something I would do with Multimethods in > Clojure? > > There's lots more, but this is the primitive stuff that I need to > comprehend first. My model does what I call "semantic compression" - > it transforms and analytically stores (parts of) the input string -, > then finds a matching object which has methods to generate facts and > rules, the core of an output, which might then be extended front and > back, depending on what's in the input and what's in the current state > (that's "semantic expansion")...and finally, the first letter of the > output is cast to uppercase, a dot or bang or questionmark is put at > the end, and a special object writes the formated output (say, to a > webpage, or to an IRC channel). I know how to do this in AIML, at > least up to the point when the interpreter crashes, because I used the > language in a way it wasn't designed to be used (but it's valid AIML - > the spec allows some unmentioned things; plus it is functional, with > continuation-passing to boot). I want to learn how to do this in > Clojure, and appreciate any pointers and tips. > > Best regards, > > Dirk Scheuring > > [1] Simple FP example in > AIML:http://list.alicebot.org/pipermail/alicebot-style/2002-September/0002... --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
