Newsgroups: comp.ai.nat-lang,alt.cyberspace,alt.internet,alt.net-scandal,comp.ai,comp.ai.philosophy
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From: vlsi_lib@netcom.com (Gerard Malecki)
Subject: Re: Eliza (was Re: Are there non-humans lurking on Internet/Usenet?)
Message-ID: <vlsi_libD3nBn4.ILH@netcom.com>
Organization: VLSI Libraries Incorporated
References: <mtm4.568.01C182F4@rsvl.unisys.com> <3h2qas$m4f@percy.cs.bham.ac.uk> <3h3flr$lhl@crl4.crl.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 20:01:52 GMT
Lines: 34
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai.nat-lang:2800 comp.ai:27189 comp.ai.philosophy:25279

In article <3h3flr$lhl@crl4.crl.com> dbennett@crl.com (Andrea Chen) writes:
>
>
>Eliza totally horrified its author.  If one went along with the game, it
>made a plausible imitation of a Rogerian therapist who essentially
>sits back and lets people wander.  And people did wander,  they confessed
>to it things that they never told anyone.  They thought it was "real".
>Some people used it to "prove" that soon we would have "computerized
>therapy".  As a result Wiezembaum (if I remmeber the authors name
>correctly) moved from a leading light in AI to one of its bitterst
>enemies.
>
>

But Eliza was pretty dumb and never made any attempt to semantically
analyze the conversation, except in the crudest sense, and limited to the
last question posed and not the overall conversation till that point.
I am sure that Rogerian therapists cannot be that bad! However, considering
the relative simplicity of its code, Eliza should be given credit for
what it is. 

But both hardware and software have matured since the times of Eliza. A
modern conversation program should have a sufficiently large database
on a wide variety of topics, rules governing behavior and ethics, judgement
and discretion. It should also know 'normal' English usage, so that its
replies are not overly pedantic or detailed to the point of boredom.

I do not see any reason why such a reasonably advanced system should 
not fit on a single CD-ROM. The question is, would there be a commercial
market for such a product? (I personally belive that if it has a voice
interface, especially a sweet female one, it would be a roaring success.)

Shankar Ramakrishnan
shankar@vlibs.com
