Philosobot: An Interactive Blazor Chatbot for Philosophical Dialogue Using OpenAI
Philosobot
Conversational AI with a Philosophical Twist
Philosobot is a chatbot application built with Blazor Server and integrated with the OpenAI API to simulate conversations with famous philosophical thinkers. Users can select a philosophical “persona” — such as Analytic Philosopher, Continental Philosopher, or Postcolonial Theorist — and engage in guided or open-ended dialogues powered by GPT-3.5.
This project merges philosophy with cutting-edge conversational AI to create an educational and reflective experience. Ideal for students, thinkers, and the curious.
Inspiration: This project began as a playful experiment in combining my background in philosophy with modern conversational AI. I wanted to explore how large language models could simulate meaningful dialogue in the spirit of great thinkers.
🔧 Tech Stack
- Blazor Server (.NET 8)
- OpenAI GPT-3.5 API integration
- Custom persona logic and dynamic prompts
- Stateful conversation flow
- Bootstrap for responsive UI
💡 Features
- Selectable philosopher personas (Philosophy Professor, Postcolonial Theorist, Wittgensteinian Monk, etc.)
- Custom system prompt logic for personality + style
- Live chat experience with OpenAI backend
- Expandable persona list and content delivery plans
📷 UI Tour
👋 Welcome Screen
The user lands on a welcoming, minimal page with the Philosobot logo and a brief description of what it does.
🧠 Choose a Persona
Users are guided to select from a list of philosophical personas. Each persona has a name, title, and summary to preview their style of thinking.
💬 Chat Window UI
After choosing a persona, users are taken to a chat interface. The selected persona introduces itself and begins a conversation.
🗨️ Chat in Progress
Messages are styled to distinguish between user and AI. The conversation scrolls naturally, and personas respond in unique tones and styles.
🧠 Key Code Screenshots
📨 SendMessage Logic
Sends the user’s message to OpenAI and receives a response. Core of the conversation loop.
👤 Persona Definitions
Each persona is defined with a name and system prompt that gives it distinct tone, style, and epistemological tendencies.
⚙️ OpenAI Options
Request settings like temperature and max_tokens to shape tone and verbosity.
📋 List of Personas
Displays available personas with names and short summaries for selection.
💬 ChatMessage Component
Blazor component to render assistant vs user messages with appropriate styling.
🚀 Planned Enhancements
- Editable and user-generated personas
- Chat history persistence (localStorage or database)
- “Memory mode” using longer context windows
- Save and share transcripts
- Mobile optimization
🔗 Links
Want to talk about philosophy, Blazor, or building creative apps with AI? Let’s chat.
Page last updated: June 2025