It seems that a Harry

It seems that a Harry Potter “chat bot” is under development, according to Entertainment Weekly.

EW: What are you girls up to? NINA: Ummm…. What. Ever. EW: Who sings “Crazy Train”? SAMANTHA: I’ll ignore that…duh. Okay, it’s clear that neither Nina nor Samantha is a rock scientist. In fact, they’re not even people. They exist as NINAandSAMANTHA, one of several chat bots surfacing all over the Web. Companies are now finding inventive ways of using bot (as in robot) software that “reads” questions and mimics human responses. These cyberpersonalities, found on numerous websites and AOL’s Instant Messenger (IM), are gaining popularity–in spite of their tendency to shill for their makers. Nina and Samantha, for example, are groupies plugging the movie Rock Star. Radiohead used an IM bot called GooglyMinotaur in June to promote its new album. And GabrielShear (John Travolta’s character), from the movie Swordfish, was among the most talked-to Buddies on AOL this summer. Now there’s a Harry Potter bot in the works. Pop-soul artist Lindsay Pagano even launched her own mechanical doppelganger, LindsayBuddy. But don’t expect sophisticated discussions. Asked if she’s a robot, LindsayBuddy snaps: “Do you think a human could respond this fast?” Bots, it seems, have feelings too.