Chris Mckinstry's Jackie

Published 07/07/2024

📝 The full Source Code to this project is available here

I came across a YouTube video showing a programmer named Chris Mckinstry. In the video it shows the Google Groups for Chris. To keep up with the video I decided to open the Google Group and inside I found Chris’ writings on an early chatbot he made.

He describes enough for us to re-create it. I’m extremely familiar with the type of chatbot Chris made as I’ve made one similar in 2018.

Jackie

The main difference between this version and Chris’s is the database. This is the guts of the concept but lacks the actual usefulness. Chris spent days crafting his dataset and in the end realized there are better approaches.

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * Based off https://groups.google.com/g/comp.ai.philosophy/c/Rv5GPrqZId4
 *
 * @author Konloch
 * @since 7/7/2024
 */
public class Jackie
{
	private final Map<String, String> stimulusResponseMap = new HashMap<>();
	private final Map<String, String> phoneticMap = new HashMap<>();
	
	public void train(String stimulus, String response)
	{
		stimulusResponseMap.put(stimulus, response);
		String phoneticKey = soundex(stimulus);
		phoneticMap.put(phoneticKey, response);
	}
	
	public String respond(String stimulus)
	{
		if (stimulusResponseMap.containsKey(stimulus))
			return stimulusResponseMap.get(stimulus);
		
		String phoneticKey = soundex(stimulus);
		return phoneticMap.getOrDefault(phoneticKey, "I don't understand.");
	}
	
	private String soundex(String s)
	{
		char[] x = s.toUpperCase().toCharArray();
		char firstLetter = x[0];
		
		//convert letters to numeric code
		for (int i = 1; i < x.length; i++)
		{
			switch (x[i])
			{
				case 'B': case 'F': case 'P': case 'V': x[i] = '1'; break;
				case 'C': case 'G': case 'J': case 'K': case 'Q': case 'S': case 'X': case 'Z': x[i] = '2'; break;
				case 'D': case 'T': x[i] = '3'; break;
				case 'L': x[i] = '4'; break;
				case 'M': case 'N': x[i] = '5'; break;
				case 'R': x[i] = '6'; break;
				default: x[i] = '0'; break;
			}
		}
		
		StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder(String.valueOf(firstLetter));
		for (int i = 1; i < x.length; i++)
		{
			if (x[i] != x[i - 1] && x[i] != '0')
				output.append(x[i]);
		}
		
		output.append("0000");
		return output.substring(0, 4);
	}
	
	public static void main(String[] args)
	{
		Jackie jackie = new Jackie();
		jackie.train("What is your name?", "Jackie");
		jackie.train("What is your favorite color?", "Red");
		
		System.out.println(jackie.respond("What is your name?"));
		System.out.println(jackie.respond("What is your favorite color?"));
		System.out.println(jackie.respond("Do you like movies?"));
	}
}

Running Jackie

When ran the output will be:

Jackie
Red
I don't understand.

Not very useful. With quite a few modifications, this would act as an okay rule responder. But the core of the program is always going to be based on this handwritten rules concept.