The “What Would I Say?” or “#wwis” Facebook app runs status updates through a bot that mixes them up before spitting out sometimes nonsensical phrases.
The app asks Facebook users to access their accounts and asks them to “Generate Status” or “Post To Facebook.”
According to the developer of the app, it “automatically generates Facebook posts that sound like you!”
“Technically speaking, it trains a Markov Bot based on mixture model of bigram and unigram probabilities derived from your past post history. Don’t worry, we don’t store any of your personal information anywhere,” it reads, adding that the app doesn’t have a database.
“All computations are done client side, so only your browser ever sees your post history,” it added.
It gives a few examples of generated posts.
“These ubiquitous creatures are recruited using scholarships,” said one from the PrincetonUniversityBot.
“We can’t do it,” reads one from BarackObamaBot.
“Why you should never touch raw chicken with electricity,” says another, called DanielBot. “Save the environment, cancel quals,” reads another.
“President Eisgruber greets the president on behalf of an EKG that includes black squirrels,” another says.
The bot was created at the Created at Princeton University’s HackPrinceton 2013 over the weekend, according to the New Yorker.
“We drank a lot of coffee and Red Bull and thought of fun things we could program that we could actually complete in a day and a half,” student Ugne Klibaite told the publication.
He added: “This was just for fun. We never thought we would get further than showing this off at the Hackathon and to our friends on Facebook.”
His team, he continued, never expected to see the app become so successful. After it gained popularity, the team added a link to donated to victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
The app can be accessed at this website.
