Loebner Contest

The LoebnerContest is an annual event sponsored by HughLoebner.

ChatBot afficinados hold a sort of TuringTest. A quick survey gives the impression that all the high scoring entrants are variants on the original Eliza ChatBot, with patches and ad hoc additions to put off the unmasking.

Some say that it's like holding a contest to see who can build the longest ladder, and then claiming that the winner is the closest to reaching the moon. Technically true, but practically ridiculous.

OTOH, it's somewhere that people with new ideas can try them out in a semi-controlled environment and hope to win real money.

As long as your new ideas aren't whacko-crazy, like, say, requiring techniques more advanced than regular expressions.

http://megahal.sourceforge.net/How.html starts with an outline of the contest before discussing MegaHal, an example ChatBot.