Comments on: Practical Artificial Intelligence (AI)

By: Bud Labitan

Bud Labitan — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:20:18 +0000

I just relesed an abridged version of my upcoming book “The Four Filters Invention of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger”

pdf file: http://www.frips.com/4fab.pdf

By: Artificial-Intelligence » Blog Archive » Practical Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 04:37:26 +0000

[...] Googling for â€œpractical artificial intelligenceâ€ gives only two (somewhat) relevant links: Open Content Free Web Books (on practical AI programming) Artificial Intelligence Lab (with some practical applications) Looks like it isnâ€™t … …more [...]

By: chronos

chronos — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:03:00 +0000

I had a look. Installation gave some WindowsScripting error, but archbot seemed to work. I tried it for a minute or two, and got the impression that UltraHAL is better developed (however, I’ve been using the free HAL-5 for several days, not minutes). Currently WaBubot looks like a collection of texts, which are just read aloud by a (not-so-good) Lernaut&Hauspie TTS. I didn’t feel interactivity, and didn’t notice anywhere the ability of the WaBubot to learn new information – probably even on his own.

I’m no specialist in investing, but is it correct to take a single person as an “idol” of investments? Wouldn’t it be wiser (or just more appropriate) to use the combined knowledge, and not the one-person work? Just a thought.

By: chronos

chronos — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 05:53:41 +0000

Thanks for the comment, sounds interesting. You might be also interested in “UltraHAL Assistant” from Zabaware – they use very similar technology with similar results. Their bot isn’t tailored for a specific task, like yours, but is also able to learn new information – even from Wikipedia pages. However, UltraHAL is a commercial product.

I might take a look at your project. By the way, you NEED a name for the project – this is an evident lack at the moment. Might be something like WaBu-bot :), or some name without the ‘-bot’ part.

Wish you luck in your projects,
Bogdan

By: Bud Labitan

Bud Labitan — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 01:50:19 +0000

This open sourced project in AI, Artificial Intelligence simulation is looking for volunteers. This new Open Source A.I. Software provides simulated smart
investor responses about sensible investing. The avatar looks like Warren
Buffett. Greg Binning and I have combined his open sourced vb code and my old MBA
investing workbook into a free software application called Archbot. Archbot
A.I. open source software combined with xml brainfiles, including support
and source code are in one big 30 MB download here:

Test it on a separate pc running Windows XP. If it runs well for you, then
you may share a story around it. http://www.pr.com/press-release/42946

We welcome comments and volunteers who are motivated to enhance and make
this free project even better. Keep in mind that this is still an early
“proof of concept.” The only multi-option interaction thus far is when you
ask the Avatar to “teach me”. Then it prompts you to choose one of the 4
investing filters. The avatar does respond to questions written in English,
mainly by keying in on a keyword. As time goes by, we would like to expand
the xml brainfile to provide more layers of interactions. Ideally, the
bbf.xml brainfile will eventually encompass most of Warren Buffett’s key
basic ideas around sensible investing. Here is a picture of the user
interface: http://www.frips.com/archbot.jpg

The real credit here belongs to a remarkable software developer and
Artificial Intelligence enthusiast named Greg Binning. Mr. Binning, in my
view, is a rare genius who can combine tech, creativity, tools at hand, and
practicality in his software architecture.

When I came across the simplicity of Binning’s adding brainpower in the form
of simple “xml textfiles” that Greg Binning calls brainfiles, I realized
that AI is almost within reach of the average man or woman who can create
word documents. My second realization was this: With enough volunteers or a
smarter txt2brainfile.exe utility, we could take all the text in Warren
Buffett’s letters to shareholders and transform them into one big organized
multinode brainfile.

While this sounds like science fiction, keep in mind that this only captures
a small portion of material that Buffett has cared to write about. However,
it is still a significant step forward for A.I researchers and value
investing enthusiasts, because most of those letters are so well edited and
organized. Well, to make a long story shorter… it is my view that this
voyage is one worth taking for many reasons.

Test it on an independent pc running Windows XP before you run a story on
this project. If it runs well, then you may share a story around it.

Bud Labitan
http://www.frips.com
budlabitan@aol.com