ELIZA mentioned. :) I had ELIZA back in the late 80s when I started computing. It was a sort of mixed bag even then - I knew how relatively primative it was even then, but it was also very compelling. It is amazing just how compelling it could seem to be somewhat human. Good for a few minutes’ entertainment.
There was basically no memory - it reacted to the last thing you said. And most of its responses were along the lines of either “how does that make you feel” or it would restate what you said to ask you why you felt that way. Rogerian therapy, I think? Something like that. Just barely enough to mostly seem coherent. The main reason the conversation was workable because you put in all the work of saying new things. With modern LLMs, if you get two of them chatting to each other, they will have a conversation - a weird one, but it’ll be a conversation. If you were to put two ELIZAs together, it just wouldn’t work at all. lol
ELIZA mentioned. :) I had ELIZA back in the late 80s when I started computing. It was a sort of mixed bag even then - I knew how relatively primative it was even then, but it was also very compelling. It is amazing just how compelling it could seem to be somewhat human. Good for a few minutes’ entertainment.
There was basically no memory - it reacted to the last thing you said. And most of its responses were along the lines of either “how does that make you feel” or it would restate what you said to ask you why you felt that way. Rogerian therapy, I think? Something like that. Just barely enough to mostly seem coherent. The main reason the conversation was workable because you put in all the work of saying new things. With modern LLMs, if you get two of them chatting to each other, they will have a conversation - a weird one, but it’ll be a conversation. If you were to put two ELIZAs together, it just wouldn’t work at all. lol
Anyway, fun to remember.
An interesting look at the history of ELIZA and for it works.
CoRecursive: Coding Stories: Story: The History and Mystery Of Eliza
Episode webpage: https://corecursive.com/eliza-with-jeff-shrager/
Media file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/corecursive/078-Eliza.mp3?dest-id=628353