Code your own chatbot using Python

Can you take the chatbot challenge and pass the Turing test?

A chatbot is some code that pretends to be human in order to interact with and assist people. You’ve probably seen one when you’ve been trying to order something online: one of those irritating automated assistants appears and asks you if you want any help.

This resource talks you through how to get started creating your own artificial intelligence that can attempt to have a conversation with you.

The Turing Test is the ultimate badge of honour for a chat bot: if it can fool a bunch of humans into thinking that they’re talking to a real person rather than a robot then it has passed the Turing test.

Chatbot challenge

Code your own chatbot that tries to pass the Turing test

Aimed at: Key Stage 3

Duration: 1-3 hours

What it involves:

  • Start by exploring different chatbots that other people have made.
  • Evaluate which is the most human and why. Discuss what makes a chatbot appear human.
  • Open the link to the code and follow the instructions to code your own chatbot
  • Sabotage your code with deliberate errors for other people to find and fix
  • Share your code with others and compete to fix each other’s errors

What you learn:

  • Sequence: writing code that following instructions in order
  • Selection: writing code that can make a decision
  • Debugging: find and fix errors in your code

Links:

Step by step instructions here: ChatBot Challenge