It's true that actually programming a chatbot from scratch is a job requiring a team and a lot of time, but "[computer] programming" actually has two meanings: its literal meaning, and the commonly understood definition. Probably only people who are or have been computer programmers, or at least taken a course or two in it, understand what programming is. Most non-programmers think that people who fiddle with computers (super users and IT pros) are programmers (or even people who "program" their VCR, which is really just setting it up or manipulating its settings), but they're not. 

So I was assuming that what DM Sataari (which, BTW, looks like an East Indian name to me) meant by "programming" a chatbot was that s/he had modififed an existing one (such as OpenAI's) to focus on Twain material only or something of that nature.

Is the whole DM Sataari thing a hoax, or a social studies experiment? Perhaps.

-- B. Clay Shannon
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