Quote Originally Posted by generalbulldog View Post
Akinator, the Web Genius

I played it 4 times and it pretty much guessed it correctly for three times but on the fourth time it missed it once and got it the next time around. Pretty eerie.

I was thinking of Bruce Lee, Spiderman, Manny Pacquiao and Sheryl Crow.

I'm guessing it will only work for famous and semi famous names. Let's say it's some obscure Irish singer, it probably won't guess it right. But still fun.
I totally outsmarted the genius with Jerome Bettis, Harry Belafonte and Boris "Bobby" Pickett, the trick to Akinator is very simple, you have to think like the programmers and how the machine works:

BAsically, people in general will think of family members/loved ones and very famous peoples spontaneously first. In 40 questions, it's wayyyy too easy to find family peoples so these have to be avoided. Now, it turns us to famous or important peoples. Special super heroes like Wolverine, Batman or famous politicians like JFK, Bush etc have to be ignored because they are on the top of the "obviousness" pyramid. The system then process by adding peoples to the database everytime you screw up the genius, so all those making the tabloids like Britney Spears, Michael Jackson etc will come quite close after. So to trick the genius, you have to take famous peoples but not among the most famous. Pickett, Belafonte and Jerome Bettis are all famous and well known peoples, but they sure do not belong to the top of the pyramid in their respective domains. Would I have tried Joe Montana or Michael Jordan, it was assuredly game over.
So chose important peoples but not being part of the top of the pyramid is the key, if you chose a scientific having worked on the atomic bomb, do not chose Robert Oppeinhemer, try with Henrico Fermi for example, if you chose an ex basketballer, Chose Dominic Wilkins, not Michael Jordan, a boxer, Try Willie Pep or Henri Armstrong but sure not Mike Tyson or Ali.

VoilĂ*