The Evolution of the Chatterbot
Even in the earliest days of the computer, the creators and developers envisioned a future of artificial intelligence for the devices. This is a field where everyone’s always learning, unlearning, relearning, and growing, thus offering innovation opportunities on an everyday basis. From the Turing Test curated by Alan Turing to find whether a computer is able to match the conversational abilities of a human, to Bill Gates’ firm belief that there would come a time in the future where keyboards would be rendered obsolete and we’d get all our work done from conversing with the computer, we’ve always been optimistic of the success of the chatbot. This article is, in part, an exploration of the rise of the chatbot — but more specifically, the utility of chatbots in present day that barely do more than what their name suggests- of bots that can only… chat.
To better understand this, we need to delve a little into the history of these bots. 1966 saw Joseph Weizenbaum create the first ever Chatterbot, as they were called then, known as Eliza. Eliza was a chatbot that acted as a therapist, and interacted with users with open-ended questions based on keywords identified from the users’ sentences. People, for their part, were found to have gotten emotionally attached to Ellie. Having already discussed Chatbots in Therapy, let’s now dive further into the question of why chatbots that we can simply converse with are so popular. What is the driving force behind simulating conversations with a computer that is devoid of any EQ, and how has it benefited people?
This is where AI comes into the picture. Artificial intelligence has allowed chatbots to grow into emotional companions for people, with it learning from the user while simultaneously providing the user with much-needed help. People find it much easier to open up to and confide in bots than with humans because the element of fear of judgement is completely removed here, as are the pitfalls that inevitably accompany human relationships.
The Advent of the Companion Bots
When the premise for such a technology looked as good as this one did, it was just a matter of time before its capabilities would be put to test and realized. Here are 3 very interesting companion bots that have made their way into our lives:
- Replika is a chatbot created by Luka and acts as a friend to the person using it. It shapes its personality in accordance with who the user is as a person themselves, along with their likes and dislikes. It has helped people immensely in learning how to build conversations, overcome social awkwardness, and build an individual’s confidence overall, or even when it offers a listening ear to someone who just needs to vent; with its insightful and personal responses.
- The Insomnobot-3000, a chatbot created by Casper, as the name suggests, is here to help people suffering from insomnia on yet another sleepless night in the form of delightful conversations. From offering possible solutions to combat insomnia (to a certain extent) to even just keeping the user entertained, it has not only proved beneficial for the user solely but has also increased Casper’s brand value.
- Ellie, a decision support tool designed to gather information, is a chatbot that is used to detect PTSD and depression, and was created for DARPA to be used by doctors at military hospitals for war veterans. Ellie isn’t meant to be a replacement for a human therapist; rather, a buffer meant to provide assistance to both the therapist and the patient for better understanding of their condition and thus, better treatment. Ellie is designed to detect signs of distress through facial gestures and through a series of questions in her interview with the veterans, and these interviews proved to be more successful in helping the vets open up than through a health survey conducted by the government.
It does not come as a surprise that we’re turning to the same technology for communication and emotional intimacy that we created to help us humans better the means of staying connected. In the clamour to keep up and be on our toes to maintain our contacts, if the ever-increasing popularity of these chatbots is anything to go by, we’ve forgotten to actually be involved in the connections we make. Although I agree that the technology comes with its pitfalls, mainly in terms of not being good enough yet and giving away, at some point, that it’s not really a human, it certainly does help a person figure out things for themselves and equips them better socially and inter-personally. The technology is only going to find itself being improved with time, and it’s not long before we might find ourselves in a world similar to the one created in the delightful movie, Her, with these chatbot-assistants growing to be a near-irreplaceable part of our lives.
