There is really nothing amazing about it, it just substitutes a human for any smarts. It's just as 'amazing' as the mechanical turk playing chess :)

You could probably re-implement the basics using a webform and some ajax in a couple of hours.

The hardest part was to figure out how to get on the ICQ network, someone was friendly enough to write micq and it was easy enough to splice the proxy bit in there.

The real challenge in making a chatbot is writing one that comes up with original stuff, this one just basically regurgitated whatever it was told on an earlier occasion.

edit: I've found the code, if you are really interested drop me an email and I'll send it to you, warning this is very ugly code, it was spliced together in a very short time from a bunch of stuff and it should really never see the light of day again. Frankenstein looks pretty in comparison :) It will also almost certainly not work (if you can find the micq it wants that might help, not sure if that is even working), fry your computer and so on...

Here is a small sample of what you could do with it (an attempt at getting people to visit camarades.com:

(I used a different domain to be able to track who actually visited the site), this the 'ruleset' after a couple of sessions.

color off
# info 12089101
rand 1
awaittarget 60 servertimeout
msg $target/Hi There !, I'm Jacques\nDo you like webcams ?
await 300 abort
!sleep 10
match explainfree (free free? cost?)
match explainrand how find
match languageno no do speak
match apologise (remove | fuck | go away)
match apologise fuck
match apologise go away

macro affirmative (cool | yes | yeah | yeh | yep | yup | da | si | sure | I do | very | like much)
match payload $affirmative
match explain need
match explaincam what
match maybe (dont know | maybe | could be)
match pity (no | nope)
match pity nope
match explain don't have
q
explainfree:
msg $target/Sure it's free !
await 300 abort
!sleep 10
match languageno no do speak
match apologise remove
match apologise fuck
match apologise go away
match payload $affirmative
match explain need
match explaincam what
match maybe dont know
match maybe maybe
match maybe could be
match pity no
match pity nope
q
apologise:
msg $target/Ok, sorry to disturb you, goodbye !
!sleep 10
q
explainrand:
msg $target/I found you through Linux/micq random people finder. So do you like cams ?
await 300 abort
!sleep 10
match apologise remove
match apologise fuck
match apologise go away
match payload cool
match payload yes
match payload yea
match payload yeah
match payload yeh
match payload yep
match payload sure
match payload I do
match payload very
match payload like much
match explain need
match maybe dont know
match maybe maybe
match maybe could be
match pity no
match pity nope
q
explaincam:
msg $target/A webcam is a camera connected to the internet
await 300 abort
match apologise remove
match apologise fuck
match apologise go away
match payload cool
match payload yes
match payload yea
match payload yeah
match payload yeh
match payload yep
match payload sure
match payload I do
match payload very
match payload like much
match explain need
match maybe dont know
match maybe maybe
match maybe could be
match pity no
match pity nope
q
apologise:
msg $target/Ok, sorry to disturb you, goodbye !
!sleep 10
q
payload:
url $target http://www.camerades.com/ Great !\nYou can see me *live*\non www.camerades.com\nEnjoy !\nThere are 100's of live cameras there and free software too !
!sleep 10
abort:
q
maybe:
msg $target/Hm, if you want to try check out www.camerades.com\nEnjoy !\nThere are 100's of live cameras there
!sleep 10
abort:
q
pity:
url $target http://www.camerades.com/ That's a pity, You can see\nme *live* on www.camerades.com\nThere are 100's of live cameras there\nAnyway, sorry to disturb you...\nGoodbye
await 180 abort
match describe what see
match explain what
match explain need
!sleep 10
abort:
q
languageno:
msg $target/No, I don't.\nThat's a pity, You can see\nme *live* on www.camerades.com\nThere are 100's of live cameras there\nAnyway, sorry to disturb you...\nGoodbye
await 300 abort
match describe what see
match explain what
match explain need
!sleep 10
abort:
q
explain:
msg $target/You don't need any software, or camera just a browser is enough.\n
!sleep 10
q
describe:
msg $target/Lot's of people and out door views from all over the world\n
!sleep 10
q
servertimeout:
!echo no response !
q