Robby Garner
Robby Garner is an American natural-language programmer whose chatbots entered early Turing-test contests. Born in 1963, he built Max Headcold and FRED; Albert One won the Loebner Prize in 1998 and 1999. He presented a multi-bot conversation system in 2005, published an article on film theory and chatbots in 2014, and led the Institute of Mimetic Sciences as CEO in 2023. As of October 2026, his conversational software work includes a JavaScript chatbot and pyFRED with Paco Nathan.
- Now at
- Institute of Mimetic Sciences
- Born
- 1963
Years link to their sources.
Timeline
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1963
An NLP programmer
Born in 1963, he is an American natural-language programmer and software developer.
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1995
Max Headcold and FRED
In 1995, he writes Max Headcold, an early web chatbot. FRED is an ongoing experiment in natural-language communication between people and computer programs.
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1998–1999
Albert One wins twice
Albert One wins the Loebner Prize in both 1998 and 1999; Garner creates the chatbot to mimic human conversation through natural-language programming.
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2002
Ella at the Loebner Prize
In 2002, he takes part in the Loebner Prize as a human contestant alongside Ella; organizers discard his human scores, while the chatbot earns a 20% Turing percentage.
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November 2005
A multi-bot approach
In November 2005, he presents a conversational system that coordinates multiple chatbots under a master control program.
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2014
Film theory and chatbots
In 2014, he publishes “Film Theory and Chatbots” in the International Journal of Synthetic Emotions.
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2023
CEO at Mimetic Sciences
In 2023, he leads the Institute of Mimetic Sciences as CEO.
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As of October 2026
Current chatbot projects
As of October 2026, his conversational software work includes a JavaScript chatbot and pyFRED, a chat agent developed with Paco Nathan.
Sources and credits
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