In a remarkable journey into the past, researchers have successfully resurrected ELIZA, the world's first chatbot, nearly 60 years after its initial creation. Developed in the 1960s by MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum, ELIZA was a pioneering force in human-computer communication. Named after the iconic character Eliza Doolittle from George Bernard Shaw's play "Pygmalion," this early chatbot learned to mimic human conversation in a manner that was revolutionary for its time. The original 420-line code was believed lost until 2021, when it was uncovered by Jeff Shrager and Myles Crowley in MIT's archives.
The discovery of ELIZA's code among dusty printouts at MIT led a team of "software archaeologists" to undertake the delicate task of bringing the program back to life. Written initially in the now-defunct MAD-SLIP programming language, ELIZA was quickly adapted to Lisp. This restoration marked its return to working condition on December 21, 2021, for the first time in six decades.
"That's more like what 'chatting' is than any intentional chatbot since," – Shrager
ELIZA's abilities continue to impress even today, considering its creation in 1965. It is often compared to modern large-language models (LLMs) and other artificial intelligence systems, maintaining its legacy as an influencer in AI development. Despite its historical significance, ELIZA faced challenges; its novelty as a chatbot overshadowed its intended purpose as a research platform.
"ELIZA was such a novelty at the time that its 'chatbotness' overwhelmed its research purposes," – Shrager
One of ELIZA's notable features is its ability to listen and respond to user input. However, it has its limitations, such as crashing when a user inputs a number like "You are 999 today." This quirk is a reminder of the era's technological constraints and serves as a testament to the ingenuity of early computer scientists.
The team tasked with restoring ELIZA faced several hurdles. They needed to clean and debug the ancient code and create an emulator to mimic the computer environment of the 1960s. Despite these challenges, their efforts highlighted the importance of preserving computational history.
"Bringing ELIZA back, one of the most — if not most — famous chatbots in history, opens people's eyes up to the history that is being lost," – Berry
"because if we don't then we will have lost the digital equivalents of the Mona Lisa, Michelangelo's David or the Acropolis." – Berry
Joseph Weizenbaum's creation of ELIZA was not only a technical achievement but also a philosophical statement about machine learning's limitations and humans' potential to be misled by machines. His work continues to inspire discussions about the ethical implications of artificial intelligence.
"Having computer scientists' code is as close to having a record of their thoughts, and as ELIZA was — and remains, for better or for worse — a touchstone of early AI, I want to know what was in his mind." – Shrager
Shrager and his colleagues faced a delicate balance between restoring ELIZA's functionality and maintaining its authenticity.
"From a technical point of view, we did not even know that the code we had found — the only version ever discovered — actually worked," – Shrager
"It would ruin the authenticity of the artifact," – Shrager
"like fixing a mis-stroke in the original Mona Lisa." – Shrager
