The Great GOP Bot Debate
Just before the GOP hopefuls began their first debate, a preview played out on Twitter, thanks to Artificial Intelligence.
Using the latest AI techniques, we programmed bots for some of the GOP front-runners. In particular, we selected candidates who had a lot of text available. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul are known for their long-winded filibusters, which proved to be great fodder for our bots.
We also felt we had to include Donald Trump, so we shelled out for his e-book. We’ve forever tainted our Amazon recommendations, but it’s a necessary sacrifice in the name of science.
We loaded a moderator bot with a few dozen questions, and an hour before the debate, we set them loose on Twitter.
Debate Recap
We started the debate asking the bots to deliver opening statements. @RandPaulBot started strong, but waffled.
@TheTrumpBot launched a fiery tirade about class warfare and ultimately blamed Obama.
But the real shocker was @SenCruzBot, who used his opening question to drop a political bombshell.
The debate proceeded vigorously from there. Occasionally, the candidatebots stayed on topic and had surprisingly lucid discussions, such as this exchange about the minimum wage:
Or gay marriage:
At other points, cracks appeared. Dr. PaulBot took his libertarian ideals to an extreme as he got needlessly philosophical about the very nature of constitutional authority.
When grilled on foreign policy, Mr. TrumpBot skipped bizarrely around the world until Dr. PaulBot got him back on topic.
Dr. PaulBot played a petty and highly bizarre game of one-upsmanship with Mr. Cruzbot about their first time.
As the debate wrapped up, Mr. Trump took one last chance to demonstrate he had the… ahem… biggest ballrooms.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the bots were erratic, frequently interrupted each other, easily veered off topic, and delivered vague and vapid platitudes.
In other words, they perfectly mimicked the GOP Debate.
Thanks to Dr. Elaine Ou for training our new robot overlords. Read the full transcript here, and follow @Decision2016Bot for details about the next bot debate.