IM Want You For U.S. Army

from the too-busy-for-humans dept

Mon, Aug 21st 2006 1:20am — Mike Masnick

theodp writes "TIME reports on the Army's use of an IM Bot in its recruiting efforts. Ask Sergeant Star (Strong-Trained-And-Ready) a question ("Can I work with computers?"), and he brings up relevant web pages to accompany his IM responses." The idea of IMbots, of course, isn't particularly new, though you have to wonder how effective it really is for the purpose of recruiting for the army. Also, has the Army violated a patent with this particular effort?

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11 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2006 @ 3:00am

lol..
ahh... im bots... it brings back memories to the days of aol and prodigy... i guess it's time to enforce my patents, damn army :P

1st
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Old Guy, 21 Aug 2006 @ 4:33am

IM Bots
Shame we cant send IM troops...
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- ForkBoySpam, 21 Aug 2006 @ 5:59am
  
  Re: IM Bots
  Maybe we could find these IM Cyber Bullies and recruit them....
  
  http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060817/1659225.shtml
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chris (profile), 21 Aug 2006 @ 6:04am

IM bots are probably smarter than army recuriters
unless the bots are programmed to lie as well :-)
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2006 @ 7:09am
  
  Re: IM bots are probably smarter than army recurit
  IM bots are obviously smarter than YOU...bet they can spell "recruiters" correctly...
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  - wolff000, 21 Aug 2006 @ 7:30am
    
    Re: Re: IM bots are probably smarter than army rec
    Since when does spelling have anything to do with smarts? I know a few absolutely brilliant physicists that can hardly spelll thier own names much less anything else. Numbers they shine with words not so good. Anyways with army recruitment #s at an all time low I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner.
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    - The Mighty Buzzard, 21 Aug 2006 @ 12:39pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: IM bots are probably smarter than army
      I might agree except that saying recruitment numbers are at an all-time low is absurd at best. This nation has been around for over two hundred thirty years and for a good few of those barely had an active military at all. Oh, wait, you probably just had your hyperbole-lock key on.
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      - Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2006 @ 1:19pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: IM bots are probably smarter than
        Perhaps you could enlighten us with some examples on how this isn't true instead of slamming postes with equalivant hyperbole responses. Doesn't anyone remember what they learned in school (citing references) or are all of you living up to the American art of non-education? It would be nice to see intelligent discussion... waiting
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Sanguine Dream, 21 Aug 2006 @ 6:12am

So has..
the Army started sending recruiters door to door like vaccum cleaner salesmen yet?
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2006 @ 6:13am

Shouldn't violate any patents since people have been doing this since the days of IRC (yes, I know its still around). Bots are pretty common there and have been for a while. Since so many people are able to come up with it then its obvious and not patentable. Same with bots pre-existing any kind of patent.
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Daniel (profile), 21 Aug 2006 @ 6:51am

absurd
its absurd that this article linked another dated 2002 ... of course its a crazy idea, but in 2002 patenting an IM bot was a *little* more feasible (although still slightly stupid)
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