Thread: AI chat bot... C or C++?

I've always wanted to make an AI chat bot, like Alice, but I'm not sure if I should do it in C or C++. I started it in C, then quickly found out I need to know a lot more C before I can create it. I posted on a few forums here and there, and responses from there and as well as my AI professor to go with C++, because I can use classes. I don't mind learning a new language, and from looking at examples C++ doesn't look TOO different from C.

So which language is best, C or C++? I would want my AI to be portable, so that I can distribute it to my friends and online.

Also, I really need to know the entire language to make one? All I want to make is a simple response program, I enter 'Hello', it responds, etc. Maybe have it remember a few responses back, so it sounds better than most AI chat bots.

Did you decide that the help you got here wasn't sufficient? Did we not convince you that even a crappy chat bot is hard to make? If you want this bot to respond meaningfully, and not with random phrases, you're going to have to do some natural language processing (NLP). This involves, at the very least, parsing what the user types grammatically, determine traits for a word (i.e. does this word imply some sense of happiness, humor, tiredness, etc). And what about context? If the user types "It makes me happy", you have to remember what it refers to. That means tracing back through the conversation looking for the antecedent for that pronoun. Think of all the ways people open a conversation. There's hi, hello, hey, yo, what's up, sup, hows it going, whats new, and dozens more. And that's just the opener, where you don't have to worry about context. How many ways can the user answer "how are you?" You're jumping in the deep end, with a 10 ton weight tied to you, and you don't even know how to swim yet. You will sink in no time, and probably never want to get back in the water again. Stop even thinking about a chat bot. I'd guess it would take you a minimum of 6-12 months of very dedicated work/study to build the skills for this project.

If, on the other hand, you are okay with your bot speaking a very narrow subset of English, then you can hack it with if-else. But you would have to severely limit your language to things like "hi", "hello" and "how are you", with responses like "good", "fine", "okay" and "bad". That's not really chatting though, more like following a script.

As for your other question, syntactically, C and C++ are similar, with C++ almost being a superset of C. There are other differences though, some crucial. Read: Cprogramming.com FAQ > C and C++? and Differences Between C and C++ - Cprogramming.com. Both are very suitable, neither is more portable. Learn both, and especially learn the different paradigms, procedural programming using C and OOP using C++.

Why is everyone on these forums so rude and mean wtf? I just want to know more about what the process of making a bot like this would consist of... holy crap. I already know I need to apply months of work before I can begin the process, but what's the harm in asking more about it? Even if I knew C/C++ inside and out, I'd still need some advice on making it... geeze

Alright, thanks for explaining. I bought Sams Teach Yourself C++ in One Hour a Day (6th Edition) by Jesse Liberty, it seemed to be include all the basics as well as advanced topics, so I will learn all of it and then come back to these forums in 6 months or so when I know 90% of C++. Thanks for being honest.