Discussion

We can note the quality of answers in the classical introductory and concluding discussion

phases with ALICE. However, even if its knowledge base includes a lot of general culture

information, ALICE was not able to answer to the very specific question about clinical trials

and suggested the user to try a web search.

As for ALICE, the EVA introductory and concluding phases are good. In (1), (2), (3), (8), (10)

and (11) the answers from the “protagonist personality” have been selected, while in (5), (6)

and (7), the answers were from the “emotional personality”. Answer (4) was from the

“antagonist personality”. The question (9) has been processed by the web mining nanoagents

through a web search using Wikipedia. The answer in this specific case is very

pertinent. However, for a more ambiguous question, the answer is not so convincing (Millet

& Heudin, 2007). Another problem is that, in most cases, the user must wait for few seconds

between his question and the answer (shown by […] in the interaction). This delay is due to

the time required to access Internet, make the search query and compute the answer (cf.

section 4.4). This could be solved by enabling the schizophrenic model to continue

interactions with the user while searching on the web. Another problem is that the

interaction case reported here is too short and simple to let all the personalities express

themselves in the flow of conversation.