12.0505 Eliza -> bots

Humanist Discussion Group (humanist@kcl.ac.uk)
Sat, 20 Mar 1999 16:54:26 +0000 (BST)

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 12, No. 505.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

[1] From: C M Sperberg-McQueen <cmsmcq@acm.org> (40)
Subject: Re: 12.0502 Eliza & other essential features of an
editor

[2] From: Ari Kambouris <aristotl@interport.net> (39)
Subject: Re: 12.0502 Eliza & other essential features of an
editor

[3] From: Jim Marchand <marchand@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> (8)
Subject: Eliza

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 16:55:07 +0000
From: C M Sperberg-McQueen <cmsmcq@acm.org>
Subject: Re: 12.0502 Eliza & other essential features of an editor

On Thu, 18 Mar 1999 07:39:00 +0000 (BST), Humanist 12.0502 had a
number of postings about Eliza; the same morning, the Circuits section
of the New York Times had a feature article by David Pescovitz about
'chatterbots', which are perhaps the best answer to Jim Marchand's
original question. What happened to Eliza? She's been re-implemented
as a bot.

The article has a few nuggets of misinformation (it fails, for
example, to distinguish Eliza from the Doctor script) but it has a lot
of information that none of us who posted answers to Jim Marchand's
question managed to come up with. (On the other hand, for some
inexplicable reason the NY Times does not mention emacs or the program
psychoanalyze-pinhead.) The article lists a number of URLs which will
be of interest to those readers of Humanist who have not already
deleted this message; I append the list with comments from the Times
(quoted) or me (non-quoted).

First, some sites with chatterbots; most also have links to general
information on the topic:

* http://birch.eecs.lehigh.edu/alice/ "Richard S. Wallace's
chatterbot has the evasive style of a politician."
* http://www.neuromedia.com/ "Corporate chatterbot answers questions
about Neuromedia's chatterbot software"
* http://www.fringeware.com/bot/barry.html "Fringeware's Barry De
Facto customer service chatterbot and this year's Turing test title
holder." (Features a screen illegible on my black/white monitor.)
* http://www.fuzine.com/mlm/julia.html "Perhaps the most widely used
chatterbot, Julia lives all over the Internet in text-based chat
rooms."
* http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/infolab/start.html "answers
questions about [MIT]'s [AI] Laboratory and world geography."
* http://www.toptown.com/hp/sjlaven/ "A chatterbot fan page with
news, reviews, and a link to Eliza, a chatterbot that simulates a
psychoanalyst's conversation with a patient." (sic)

Then, some sites with general information:

* http://www.botspot.com/ (bot designs and application areas)
* http://birch.eecs.lehigh.edu/alice/forbin.html (conversations
among bots)
* http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html (a quixotic
attempt to encourage AI research and development by holding an annual
Turing test)

-C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
Senior Research Programmer, University of Illinois at Chicago

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 16:55:17 +0000
From: Ari Kambouris <aristotl@interport.net>
Subject: Re: 12.0502 Eliza & other essential features of an editor

On a general note about chatterbots, the New York Times features an article
in today's Circuits section with links:

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/circuits/articles/18bots.html

The article cites the following bots and pages:

ALICE NEXIS: http://birch.eecs.lehigh.edu/alice
Richard S. Wallace's chatterbot has the evasive style of a politician.

NEUROMEDIA: http://www.neuromedia.com
Corporate chatterbot answers questions about Neuromedia's chatterbot software.

BARRY: http://www.fringeware.com/bot/barry.html
Fringeware's Barry De Facto customer service chatterbot and this year's
Turing test titleholder.

JULIA'S HOME PAGE: http://www.fuzine.com/mlm/julia.html
Perhaps the most widely used chatterbot, Julia lives all over the Internet
in text-based chat rooms.

START: http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/infolab/start.html
Massachusetts Institute of Technology chatterbot answers questions about
the university's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and world geography.

THE SIMON LAVEN PAGE: http://www.toptown.com/hp/sjlaven
A chatterbot fan page with news, reviews and a link to Eliza, a chatterbot
that simulates a psychoanalyst's conversation with a patient.

BOTSPOT: http://www.botspot.com
A comprehensive guide to all types of bot designs and applications.

THE FORBIN PROJECT: http://birch.eecs.lehigh.edu/alice/forbin.html
This site documents conversations between chatterbots. Its name is taken
from a 1969 film in which a Russian supercomputer and an American one plot
to take over the world.

HOME PAGE OF THE LOEBNER PRIZE:
http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html
Past winners, sample dialogues and entry information from the annual Turing
test.

Best,

Ari

_________________________________________
Ari Kambouris
Metaphor Group, Inc.
Information Architecture and Project Management

tel. 212.740.6306
pager 917.243.1548
e-mail <aristotl@interport.net>]
ICQ. 22359448

--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 16:55:43 +0000
From: Jim Marchand <marchand@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Eliza

The original article is: Joseph Weizenbaum, "ELIZA -- A Computer Program for
the Study of Natural Language Communications between Man and Machine,"
Communications of the ACM (Jan. 1966). He had already thought of the
Rogerian connection; see A. T. Weil, "Conversations with a Mechanical
Psychiatrist," Harvard Review (1965), 68-74. For a commercial product, see
BYTE, October 84, 498: "Psyche is a modern software counseler who will hold
a delightfully real keyboard conversation with you ..." Cf. also p. 519.
Also reviewed in PCMagazine Jan 83, 333 ff.
Jim Marchand.

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