# Defeat the Akinator! **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 5, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724 "2011-10-05T20:50:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![George\_Kaplin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@George\_Kaplin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/George_Kaplin)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/1 "2011-10-05T20:50:01Z")
[Akinator](http://us.akinator.com/#) is an AI which guesses fictional and real-life characters. It’s remarkably tough to beat, and, consequently, is _horrendously_ addictive. Seriously, you’ve gotta try this fucking thing. It’s just flat-out amazing. First time I tried it, I thought _“Meh, give it an easy one. Let’s go with Doctor Who”_. In _nine questions_ it not only got Doctor Who, it got _the specific Doctor_ I was thinking of! I then tried Louis CK, Gepetto, Boo Radley, Toshiro Mifune, Multiple Miggs, and Big Keith from the UK version of The Office. It got _every single one_ in less than 20 questions. I _finally_ defeated it with Lorraine Stanley, star of obscure English gloomfest [London To Brighton](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_to_Brighton). Give it a go. If you can beat it on the first go I’ll be very impressed. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/2 "2011-10-05T21:22:20Z")
That game has been linked here several times in the past. Always fun to play. I beat it on my first attempt today with Rickey Jackson, HoF LB for the Saints. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/3 "2011-10-05T21:52:06Z")
It was unable to get [Jared Harris](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Harris) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/4 "2011-10-05T21:54:03Z")
That’s pretty neat. I finally stumped it with Lord Fanny, a anarchist transsexual bruja from _The Invisibles_. It guessed Calvin’s dad, from _Calvin and Hobbes_. It did, however, get it right on the second guess. Prior to that, it got Nathan Beford Forrest, Zoe from _Left for Dead_, and Mark Grayson from _Invincible_. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/5 "2011-10-05T21:57:31Z")
This was posted recently. It’s fun, and it does surprisingly well with porn stars. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/6 "2011-10-05T21:58:07Z")
I beat it with [Brian Rix](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Rix), but it complained that a lot of my answers were too vague, and it seems he was in the database. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/7 "2011-10-05T22:04:53Z")
Motherfuck. That he guessed Battle Angel Alita and Tyrion Lannister easily enough I can figure (not too hard, they’re pretty famous/popular), but Jacques de Molay ? Grmbl, OK, more obscure then, try this one on for… you’ve got to be shitting me. It got _Maliq Al-Sayf_, a minor secondary character from a half-decade old game who appears in all but three or four cutscenes ? _strokes beard_ Impressive. Almost got it with Cyrano de Bergerac. Took it 28 questions and the first couple guesses were ridiculously far off the mark. Aaaand finally stumped it with Fidel _I forget, I forget again_ from _Jagged Alliance 1&2_. Apparently he’s not even in the database yet. So I guess I just screwed a future player 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/8 "2011-10-05T22:43:17Z")
Finally stumped it with Brian Duffy, the protagonist from Tim Powers’ _Drawing of the Dark_. Its last guess before it gave up was King Arthur, which was pretty cool: in the novel, Duffy is the reincarnation of Arthur. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/9 "2011-10-05T23:02:03Z")
Fun game! Thanks! After many plays, I finally stumped him with Smokey Lonesome, a character from Fried Green Tomatoes. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/10 "2011-10-05T23:12:50Z")
Stumped it with Minax, main bad character from Ultima II (Though to be honest I couldn’t answer every question like hair color) Brian ---
**Author:** ![keeganst94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a6a055/32.png) [@keeganst94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keeganst94)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/11 "2011-10-06T01:08:15Z")
It got Cecil on the third try. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/12 "2011-10-06T01:24:42Z")
It couldn’t get my first choice: Marie Bashir, the Governor of NSW. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/13 "2011-10-06T01:34:51Z")
What I find amazing are the times I think I’ve fucked up the answers with my probablies and probably-nots and yet it still gets them right. Sometimes it asks the same question repeatedly though and I think it’d be even better if it didn’t do that. For example, when the person I was thinking of was Gianna Michaels it asked three separate times if the character I was thinking of had red hair. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/14 "2011-10-06T02:05:02Z")
It only took 26 questions (and two tries) to guess Carmilla. It even had her last name in the file, which I was blanking on. That was one of the more impressive ones it’s gotten. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/15 "2011-10-06T02:07:09Z")
When it asks the same (or very similar) question multiple times, it’s because it has that question multiple times in its database, and doesn’t realize that it’s the same question. And it didn’t even have Gurthang in its database, but it did guess Stormbringer and Frostmourne, which are both pretty close. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/16 "2011-10-06T02:29:58Z")
Previous thread: [What was that one game Dopers found that had the computer guessing who they were? - The Game Room - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=606030) My posts are on the next-to-last page. I learned that Akinator knows Tolkien very well, but law-related movies not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/17 "2011-10-06T02:33:07Z")
OK, now this is interesting… I just stumped it with Victor Cachat, from the Honor Harrington books, who apparently wasn’t even in the database… But I’ve apparently played him before, since my browser auto-completed the name. ---
**Author:** ![Astral\_Rejection](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@Astral\_Rejection](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astral_Rejection)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/18 "2011-10-06T02:33:12Z")
I love that it correctly identified the T-Rex from Jurassic Park in 9 questions. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/19 "2011-10-06T02:47:01Z")
My wife just stumped it with David Liebowitz, author of _My Sweet Life in Paris_. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/20 "2011-10-06T03:53:35Z")
Today it correctly guessed Mike Logan (from Law and Order), Danger Mouse, and The Cigarette Smoking Man (from the X-Files), before I finally stumped it with Jerry Brown, of all people. It guessed Dennis Kucinich. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724.md?page=2)