# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/61 "2013-11-26T07:48:28Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > [Enjoy!](http://www.smalltime.com/Dictator) I put in RL answers just for fun. Apparently I’m Mario. 😃 ---
**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:** [November 26, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/62 "2013-11-26T14:58:40Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > [Enjoy!](http://www.smalltime.com/Dictator) It got Cousin Oliver from _The Brady Bunch_ in 28 guesses. Not too shabby. I wish it had a “maybe” answer button, though - I wasn’t sure of the answer to some of its questions. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/63 "2013-11-26T22:48:03Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > [Enjoy!](http://www.smalltime.com/Dictator) Thanks. Now that I’ve played them head to head, Akinator is more appealing - it seems to find answers more quickly (amazingly in some cases) and the ‘maybe’ button is appealing. Akinator doesn’t seem to know who Miles Vorkosigan is. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/64 "2013-11-26T23:14:35Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Akinator doesn’t seem to know who Miles Vorkosigan is. I take that back - when I tried the Akinator on a tablet, it asked me if I wanted “kid safe” mode or not, and without kid safe mode, it had no problem finding Miles… ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/65 "2013-11-27T01:13:48Z")
My wife beat this on her first try. She chose Steve Kemp, the boyfriend of Dee Wallace in _Cujo_ ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/66 "2013-11-27T01:39:48Z")
It took three tries to get Lazarus Long. The second guess was Jubal Harshaw. Does this thing read your browser history? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/67 "2013-11-27T01:59:04Z")
I put in Dolly Pelliker, Karen Silkwood’s roommate in “Silkwood.” At 45 questions and counting is it quite clear Akinator’s never going to get it. Once a character is correctly entered into the database it isn’t THAT hard for it to guess most things. Ten or twenty questions, asked in a logical fashion, is a LOT of questions (and the Akinator is famously illogical, if you give it a hard one.) Most users will pick characters that Internet users like - characters from video games or Coen Brothers movies or The Big Bang Theory. Lazarus Long or Jubal Hershaw? No sweat, because characters from sci-fi stuff get used a lot. But I bet not a lot of people tried Dolly Pelliker. In fact, if anything I find Akinator is shittier than ever. I tried giving it Corporal Hicks from “Aliens” and it just blew it, again and again, getting closer, guessing Johnny Rico (reasonably similar) and then suddenly asking me if the character was in comedies. It then veered back and finally picked Hudson (he’s Hicks!) so it got close, and then veered away again. ---
**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:** [November 27, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/68 "2013-11-27T02:44:24Z")
Again, questions like that aren’t actually veering off. Getting “no” as an answer is just as useful for a computer as getting “yes”. It’s the human style of questioning, where we ask a bunch of questions to which we’re pretty sure we already know the answer, that’s illogical. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/69 "2013-11-27T15:57:38Z")
Flashman was a bit of a challenge for it–over 40 questions. ---
**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:** [November 27, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/70 "2013-11-27T16:55:46Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > …and then suddenly asking me if the character was in comedies. It then veered back and finally picked Hudson (he’s Hicks!)… :: golf clap :: ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/71 "2013-11-27T17:03:12Z")
I finally stumped it with Daryl Stuermer who was a touring member of Genesis (guitar and bass) until they “broke up” in 2008. I felt bad for the ol’ Akinator so I helped it out and added Stuermer and what he’s known for to Akinator’s database. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/72 "2013-11-27T17:15:48Z")
A bit surprised I managed to stump it with… James Spader? I strongly suspect I wasn’t giving good answers–some of them are a bit difficult if you’re talking about an actual actor rather than his character. (Sure, Red likes guns–but Alan Shore didn’t, and who the hell knows whether James Spader does personally?) ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/73 "2013-11-27T19:37:10Z")
Beat it with the Simpsons version of Daryl Strawberry. It didn’t guess the real version either. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/74 "2013-11-27T19:38:52Z")
There’s a pretty obscure Marvel hero named White Tiger. It didn’t guess him. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/75 "2013-11-27T19:58:49Z")
I listened to an episode of WTF with Mark Maron recently. The guest was Barry Crimmins, a comedian and satirist. He has toured nationally, been involved in standup since the 70s and was a correspondent for Air America. After listening to WTF, I was surprised to find that Crimmins has no Wikipedia page. The Akinator gave up on Barry after guessing Cornell West, Dennis Miller and Jeff Dunham. This took 72 questions; I was about to give up. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/76 "2013-11-27T20:57:34Z")
So, among questions I was not expecting it to ask: “Is your character associated with Furry pornography?” O.O (I was thinking of Hitler, so… Nooooo… though, knowing furries… :p) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/77 "2013-11-27T21:14:31Z")
It took 50 questions (a bunch of which I had to look up to get the answer to), but it finally got Fanny Brice. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/78 "2013-11-27T21:20:28Z")
For those of you who stumped it … do you count it stumped if the first guess is wrong? 'Cause there’s an option to continue and it will keep on asking. Is it ironic that I stumped it on Kevin Bacon? It’s first guess was Tom Hanks. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/79 "2013-11-27T21:46:47Z")
Took 65 questions and 2 wrong answers until it got Rita Coolidge. But the first 2 guesses were in the right neighborhood – Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. ---
**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:** [November 27, 2013, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/80 "2013-11-27T22:57:28Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **LawMonkey** : > > So, among questions I was not expecting it to ask: “Is your character associated with Furry pornography?” O.O Remember, all the questions were submitted by users. Now think about the average intelligence of Internet users. The poor computer has no way of knowing which questions are good ones except by trying them. Eventually it’ll figure out (from the answers it gets) that a question is friggin’ stupid, but by then it’ll have been replaced by some other friggin’ stupid question. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724.md?page=5)