A: You are so pretty.
B: Thank you. Are you handsome?
A: I am extremely cute.
B: What are you wearing today?

This wasn't online flirtation between two students. Indeed, only one of the participants was human. "B" was a judge of the Loebner Prize, an annual competition to find the best "chatterbot" computer program for imitating human chat, and "A" was a bot named Jabberwacky.

By Andrew Hodges, author of "Alan Turing: The Enigma".

Full Japan Times story: http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20031123a1.htm

'Tell me a joke." A small audience sits in front of a big screen waiting for a response to pop up. A short pause - then some type flickers up onscreen. "Why did the chicken cross the road?" A slight groan from the audience. A reply is dutifully typed up. "I don't know - why did the chicken cross the road?" Another pause. Up on screen, more type appears. "Because it was stapled to the elephant."

Full Guardian story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1068337,00.html

A German computer program has chatted its way to first place in the Loebner Prize for human-like communication.

British hope, Jabberwacky, came joint third in the competition to find the computer with the most human-like chat.

Full BBC News story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3206876.stm

A computer program designed to talk like a human is preparing for its biggest test in its bid to be truly "intelligent".

Jabberwacky lives on a computer hard drive, tells jokes, uses slang, sometimes swears and can be quite a confrontational conversationalist.

Full BBC News story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3116780.stm