# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/121 "2015-11-18T02:05:07Z")
25 guesses each for Marvin the Paranoid Android and the Horta ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/122 "2015-11-18T02:29:41Z")
Woot! Stumped it with Yoshimi P-We. About question 50 it started asking questions about things already established like she’s Asian =\> is she British or establish she was a she and a few questions assumed he was a guy. ---
**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 18, 2015, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/123 "2015-11-18T02:56:55Z")
OK, I just tried Morgoth, and got the following string of questions: Is your character associated with Red Vs Blue? Is your character linked with the colour blue? Is your character mostly red? Is your character linked with red and blue? Fixate much, Akinator? ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/124 "2015-11-18T03:57:25Z")
> [@George\_Kaplin](#): > > [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. Clearly the program has gotten worse. I tried Doctor Who for comparison, and it took 19 questions (pretty bad given that question #9 was “Is your character a Time Lord?”). That’s the only one I’ve tried that it got in under 20. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/125 "2015-11-18T04:21:58Z")
WTF? I’m stuck on Q1 forever, variations on “Is your character real?” “Does your character exist?” ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/126 "2015-11-18T04:31:18Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > WTF? I’m stuck on Q1 forever, variations on “Is your character real?” “Does your character exist?” Ignore above, connection problem. Stumped it with Feric Jagger ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/127 "2015-11-18T06:30:37Z")
I just stumped it with Francisco Franco. It guessed Fulgencio Bautista, even though I already told it he wasn’t Cuban. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/128 "2015-11-18T19:07:54Z")
It seems to have difficulty with 70s-80s BritCom characters and pre-1980s Florida governors. Not that I’m fixated on those. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/129 "2015-11-18T20:11:26Z")
Stumped it on Creighton Abrams. It did get Michael Wittman which I expected would be more difficul. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/130 "2015-11-18T23:06:09Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I beat it with Eddie Stanky, Jesse Barfield, and any number of other baseball players. For fun I tried a Stephen King character; Peter McVries from “The Long Walk.” Fail (77 questions in, it was actually getting further, which I find surprising.) Really, it’s easy to beat; just pick a famous person or character who is NOT part of something Internet folks are likely to be into. I am sure the Akinator knows every single character on Game of Thrones, The Simpsons, The Big Bang Theory, or a video game. > > I’ve said this before but if anything I find the Akinator is one of the WORST 20-questions simulators I’ve ever played with, I’d assume because it’s now just guessing based on the repeated popularity of pop culture guesses and its owner isn’t bothering to improve it. Its algorithm is nonsensical. I started it up just now and the first question was “Is your character in Mission Impossible?” That’s not a very clever starting point. I was unimpressed. I beat it with James Garfield (it guessed Abraham Lincoln), Rudyard Kipling, and to my surprise even Glorfindel (it gave me Legolas and then Haldir). Often it asks totally ridiculous questions based on what I told it previously. (Are you a character from Lord of the Rings? Yes. Are you from Belarus?:dubious:) ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/131 "2015-11-19T02:04:48Z")
You might also stump it if the database is imperfect or it is you that has a false data point that you mistakenly think is true. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/132 "2015-12-06T14:29:34Z")
46 questions to get Billy Jack, with one wrong guess (Dirty Harry after 25 questions). ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/133 "2015-12-06T15:06:11Z")
Stumped it with [The Colonel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colonel_(Monty_Python)) from _Monty Python_, and again with Maddy Magellan from _Jonathan Creek_. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2015, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724/134 "2015-12-07T05:14:21Z")
> [@ctnguy](#): > > Stumped it with [The Colonel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colonel_(Monty_Python)) from _Monty Python_… That was much too silly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/defeat-the-akinator/598724.md?page=6)