What are some of the best chatterbots?
Cleverbot.com [1] is arguably the most popular. The newly popular SimiSimi mobile app is perhaps a close second, particularly in Asia. Wikipedia contains both a Category:Chatterbots [3] and a List of chatterbots [4]. Chatbots.org also maintains a relatively up to date Directory [5].
As for what “best” really means, the sky is the limit…. Guile3d.com Denise [6] is probably the best full featured desktop virtual assistant at the moment. There are a number of learning bots available, such as Zabaware – Ultra Hal Assistant [7]. Ultra Hal is also apparently learning continuously in the cloud from Twitter, and can be interacted with on Twitter @UltraHal [8]. @twthal [9] is another interactive learning chatbot on Twitter by Ai Research (a-i.com).
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleverbot
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimSimi
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Chatterbots
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chatterbots
[7] http://www.zabaware.com/assistant