Well, this seems like the best group to post this in.

I was thinking of building a Queen Chrysalis animatronic, with movement and response to the environment, among other things. It would also feature a Chrysalis-like AI, that would be able to converse with nearby humans. From a cursory glance at the AI programming involved, it seems like the best approach is to create a 'fresh' version of a Cleverbot-like AI, and constantly roleplay with it as Chrysalis herself (thus 'teaching' it how to act like her.)

So my question to the rest of you is, would you be interested in 'teaching' this AI how to act like Chrysalis? It would take a lot of roleplaying for the machine to make any significant progress.

Sign me the FUCK up.

Colt, this would be AMAZING! Might not have time until Spring or Summer, but if you still need help then I would be all over that! I want ooooone tooo! :P

And how would that work?

5778126 The way Cleverbot and other conversational AI's work is through a process called 'machine learning.' Basically, the AI starts out with no inputs or outputs. Someone types "Hello." into the chatbox, and suddenly the machine has an input. It chooses outputs based on what inputs it has to pick from, thus simulating a 'normal' conversation based on what people might say to its output. So far, it only has one output to choose from, so it types "Hello." back. The user then might say "How are you?", which the machine recognizes as a valid response to that output, and it will remember that in the future. And so on, and so forth.

The reason why Cleverbot is so close to an actual human is because it's simulated millions of these conversations, allowing it to build up a repertoire for almost any possible response.

So, if one were to submit all inputs in a Chrysalis-like fashion, for example:
AI: How are you today?
USER: Hungry, as usual.

AI: Would you like some love?
USER: Of course, you idiot! I'm always hungry!

This would 'teach' the machine to respond in a Chrysalis-like fashion for any given input.

So far, here's the shopping list to create one robot (without aesthetic features). This is all overestimated, to account for both safety factors and potential accidents during the first build.
HDPE bar, 1", 14 ft. $40
Gyroscopic sensors, 8 $12
Mylar film, 0.02"x20"x500" $57
3D printed parts, various $50 (budget)
Raspberry Pi 3 $40
Motor, DC High-Speed 12V $10
Servos, x10 $16
LEDs $15 (budget)
Supercapacitor, 500F x 2 $5.79
Solar panel, 2v x 300mA, x6 $15.06
Bimetallic sheet, Fe-Al $20
Total $281
All this stuff would allow for flight (yes, real flight, of a life-size changeling queen), solar recharging, speech modulation/conversation/etc., walking/movement, and much more. But, as you can see, it's very expensive.