As the youngest of five kids, one of my favorite games to play with my siblings was “20 Questions”, the game where I think of something and my brother can ask up to 20 “yes” or “no” questions to gather enough clues to guess what it is.
By tradition, the first question is “animal, vegetable or mineral?” and if it was an animal, the game stalled because I pronounced the word as “am-nim-nul” and that response usually set my siblings into giggles.
Today, I talk world politics with my brother and play 20 Questions with a computer on the Internet instead. The website is www.20Q.net and it is the brainchild of a bunch of software programmers who developed an artificial intelligence engine to play 20 Questions. The engine learns from the responses of each player, so now, after 10 or 20 million games with millions of players, it can guess that you are thinking of 80 percent of the time!
To be fair, you have to think of ordinary things with common names. “Nail clippers” or “book” or “scalpel” or “magician” or “automobile” can be guessed. “1966 Ford Mustang” cannot.
The artificial intelligence engine and the database of millions of responses has been licensed and condensed into handheld versions of the game. You can get these at places like “The Discovery Channel Store”. I like the Internet version better because you can play each game faster!
Ready? Go! I am thinking of an am-nim-nul!
John Sweney is a marketing communications and public relations consultant, public speaker and entrepreneur. As co-founder and CEO of Brookwoods Group, he and his team provide customized interim communications and marketing services to large companies and startups. 
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