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I'm getting a "chat with an expert" popup. What is this? Clicking it "connects me with an expert", but I'm not sure who. Is this an SE add-on, or some weird ad-ware that's popping through?

Here's a screen clip of the popup that I got right here! I wonder if it has to do with the "how do you recognize an expert" post on the main site.

enter image description here

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  • \$\begingroup\$ What website is it taking you to connect you with an expert? \$\endgroup\$
    – Kortuk
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 15:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ Unknown. It brings up a window as a popup. As a matter of fact, just got a popup on the meta site that I captured as a screen snip. I'll post it in an answer, as I can't do it in a comment \$\endgroup\$
    – Scott Seidman
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 15:30
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    \$\begingroup\$ Consider yourself lucky! Try to learn whatever pearls of wisdom you can from the expert. Just don't ask them what day it is. \$\endgroup\$
    – angelatlarge
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 15:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ Seems to be going around. meta.stackexchange.com/questions/174407/… -- Appears to be an AI April Fools-bot \$\endgroup\$
    – Scott Seidman
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 15:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ Forgot it was 2013/4/1. My mistake. \$\endgroup\$
    – Kortuk
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 16:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ I've been trying to figure out if it has an (hidden) Easter egg, but no luck so far. \$\endgroup\$
    – jippie
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 17:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ Nah, @jippie, that was Sunday ;) \$\endgroup\$
    – Scott Seidman
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 17:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ScottSeidman en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Monday \$\endgroup\$
    – jippie
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 17:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ @jippie Easter Monday is a Sunday, according to the Catholic Church :) \$\endgroup\$
    – user17592
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 18:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ @CamilStaps not according to my calendar/computer/telephone/tablet/... \$\endgroup\$
    – jippie
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 19:21

3 Answers 3

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It's a beta of a new SE interface. They are trying to see whether they can get rid of the troublesome users and replace them with a universal AI answer bot. People make mistakes, don't write clearly, slip decimal points, etc. We'll all be unnecessary soon, but for now they still have a few details to work out. The response to one of life's great questions wasn't quite ready for prime time yet:

Added:

The bot isn't really all that sophisticated. I remember a program from the late 1970s called Eliza that wasn't much worse than this. This is a long way from passing the Touring Test.

I did another one to see what it can do. I noticed the dialog box had a link at the top to the transcript of the session. I wonder if it's possible to see other transcripts. Deleting the leaf name from that link doesn't get you to a page with a bunch of transcripts. There are probably some good ones in there.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ SE is probably wanting their programmers to spend more time on monetizing the site than improving an Eliza program (I think "Eliza" is a name of the class now). Besides if it passed the Touring test it would be less fun as a 4/1 program. \$\endgroup\$
    – angelatlarge
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 20:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ Olin, I remember using emacs to pass Zippy the Pinhead quotes to Eliza. You'd have pages and pages of wonderful dialog before you could even stop the script. Found it!! ibm.com/developerworks/ibm/library/lol/pinhead.html \$\endgroup\$
    – Scott Seidman
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 21:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ Drat-- had to install emacs and run it. Eliza is good old Eliza, but all Zippy wants to say is "Legally-imposed CULTURE-reduction is CABBAGE-BRAINED!" \$\endgroup\$
    – Scott Seidman
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 21:19
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    \$\begingroup\$ Touring test? Where's it touring? \$\endgroup\$
    – Shamtam
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 22:50
  • \$\begingroup\$ if you just said, "ni" it had some funny responses. \$\endgroup\$
    – Kortuk
    Commented Apr 2, 2013 at 21:36
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It's a new functionality of EE.stackexchange, instead of asking questions to the community, it'll answer whatever problem you have instantly!

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Heh. Any entity who intentionally answers questions or guides an online conversation in order to perpetuate the conversation ...is defined as an "internet troll." If Eliza can't detect the natural end of a thread, and then cease replying, then Eliza is revealed to not be human (as we occasionally discover our online opponents to be trolls rather than humans!)

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