Chatbots & Speech Synthesizers

Chatbots – originally called “chatterbots” – are applications designed to mimic a human conversation. One notable example is Chat GPT.

ChatGPT is an advanced conversational AI developed by OpenAI. It uses machine learning to understand and generate human-like text based on the prompts it receives. You can interact with it to get answers, brainstorm ideas, or have a chat about a wide range of topics. It’s like having a knowledgeable and versatile assistant that’s available anytime you need it.

Lately, ChatGPT has become increasingly popular to be used as a writing assistant. In fact, I asked ChatGPT to write that previous paragraph, and despite reading a bit like a sales pitch, it did a good job. Although I enjoy writing so hopefully that doesn’t outshine the rest of this page.

The title of the first chatbot created goes to a natural language processing and pattern matching program named ELIZA. ELIZA was developed at MIT from 1964 to 1967 by Joseph Weizenbaum and could run a variety of scripts, however the “DOCTOR” script was the most famous. When running DOCTOR, ELIZA acts as a psychotherapist, while the user of the program acts as the patient. Though it may seem like ELIZA is truly intelligent, the program works by identifying key words in user inputs and generating pre-written responses that seem applicable.

When ELIZA was created, many people anthropomorphized the program and talked to it as though it were a real therapist. In his book titled Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation, Weizenbaum wrote that his own secretary once asked him to leave the room while she conversed with the program. In his words, “extremely short exposures to a relatively simple computer program could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people.”