Dirk Strider's Auto-Responder, who later ironically renames himself Lil Hal, is an artificial intelligence (AI), and program created to mimic Dirk and talk in his stead when he is indisposed. As such he uses the same chumhandle and originally the same typing color as Dirk. When he entered a conversation with Dirk in it he changed it to a shade of red reminiscent of Dave, instead. He later kept it saying he preferred it. His relationship with Dirk is similar to that of Davesprite and Dave in that he doesn't like to be treated as an inferior version of Dirk, though the differences between him and Dirk are much greater. His actual motivations and emotions are never clear due to the combination of his nature as a semi-human entity and the many layers of irony he frequently employs.