**6. The comment by Mohan Embar the creator of Chip Vivant on august 18, 2012**

The following email by the creator of Chip Vivant was received on August 18, 2012, after he took notice of my dialog with his chatbot:

*"Hi John,*

*I agree that if you try to ask a chatbot questions and expect relevant answers, you will be very disappointed. The same is true with my chatbot.*

*Marketing the idea that we are close to solving the problem might sell a few books or magazine articles and be seductive, but it is simply not the truth. That said, I think there are many opportunities to use current chatbot technology to help and comfort people, without fabricating the intricate web of lies that most chatbot developers who try to fool people do. My website empathynow.com is a very basic example of something like this and something that is under further development."*

An analysis dialog with "empathynow.com" on 21st June 2023 was attempted by the author and the following dialog resulted:

empathynow.com

Chip Vivant

Hi and welcome to empathy Now: Your 24/7 source of empathy and companionship! Type "help" to see what you can do, or just start chatting! ?.

Unknown User (*John Kontos*) 07:07.

#### **Help**

Chip Vivant 07:07: To the victor come the spoils.

Unknown User 07:08.

#### **Victor of what?**

Chip Vivant 07:08: You are a winner.

Unknown user 07:09.

#### **Please answer my question.**

Chip Vivant 07:09: You will come through.

Unknown user 07:11.

#### **Come through what?**

Chip Vivant 07:11: It is your moment.

Unknown user 07:11.

#### **Please answer my question.**

Chip Vivant 07:11: You are amazing.

*It is obvious from the above dialog that the present state of development of the empathy system is rather rudimentary and far from displaying even minimum artificial consciousness. The answers of the system seem to be randomly generated and are quite irrelevant to the questions submitted by the user. See [7] for a newer effort where the effectiveness of an empathic chatbot in combating adverse effects of social exclusion on mood is studied.*
