Cleverbot

Cleverbot, created by British AI scientist Rollo Carpenter and launched publicly in 2008 (with predecessor Jabberwacky dating to 1988), is one of the oldest and most tested conversational AIs still in operation. Rather than using a pre-trained language model, Cleverbot generates responses from a massive database of real human conversations, growing by 4-7 million interactions daily.

The chatbot achieved a 59.3% human rating in a 2011 Turing test (above the 50% threshold), demonstrating its conversational capabilities. While it lacks the sophisticated features of modern AI companions — no voice, no images, no memory across sessions — its responses carry an unpredictable, distinctly human quality derived from learning directly from millions of real conversations.

Cleverbot is free to use on the web with API access available for developers building integrations. Mobile apps exist for iOS and Android. The platform is community-driven, meaning conversation quality can be inconsistent and occasionally inappropriate based on what users have taught it. Best for nostalgic AI enthusiasts and users curious about a fundamentally different approach to conversational AI.