AI has become an all-encompassing word being used today and many wonder why it
is so important for human survival and growth. We first need to look at the
development of AI solutions since the mid-1960s when the first AI Chatbots came
into existence from the first of the Robotics laboratories around the world.
Back in the 1960s, AI was busy piecing together a language which would mimic
the human in tone and the way it “thought things thru; even the computer
programming language that was driving AI forwards was called Artificial
Intelligence Programming Language.
Smalltalk and ML
One of the first of these languages was either ML or Smalltalk. Smalltalk would
be at the center of Xerox Park and the work they were doing there. Eliza (1966)
was developed at the MIT laboratories by Dr. Weizanbaum using MAD-SLIP a
version of Lisp. Originally developed as a sort of mockery or parody to show
the inconsistencies between the machine and the human it was
“speaking” too. Weizenbaum received more praise than he expected from
colleagues who sensed a certain human interaction with the scripted
computer.
What followed was a
surprise
What followed Eliza (1966) and Jabberwocky (1981) was the growth and
development of what is today called Conversational
Interface Platform Software. Conversational software has developed
steadily over the past 50 years. One of the latest developments has been IBM
Watson (2006)and Siri (2010) IBM Watson was the first computer to actually be
smart enough to play Jeopardy and compete with humans.
AI and Chatbot
Psychology
For the past 20 years, a young Ph.D. student and her team have applied AI
Technology to the field of psychology. A program they developed at their
Stanford psychology labs called Woebot allows CBT patients to work thru their
anxiety while interacting with Woebot, a form of Chatbot designed for mental
patients working thru stress issues. Woebot interacts with human intelligence.
Woebot grows stronger and has shown that it can be related better to each
patient over time and the Chaptbot gets to know the patient and vice versa.
Conversational AI solutions are not just about meeting customers, but also
about meeting humans where they are and giving them a better experience of life
as they mature. AI and machines can AI help one
another.
AI is at the forefront of technological advances where machines interact with
humans in ways not available before AI showed it could learn from their
experiences on a one to one basis. Dr. Darcy and her team at Stanford have
shown thru scientific study that mental patients actually began to feel better
with themselves after interacting with Woebot during a two-week trial
period.
Fifty Years Later and
Twenty Years in Development
Just as Dr. Weizanbaum had experienced in the MIT labs in the mid-1960s with
ELIZA, so Dr. Darcy’s testing showed scientifically what Dr. Weizenbaum was
surprised with people’s response to ELIZA; that is, they were comforted by
interacting with a scripted machine. Woebot has over 20 years of development
built into its responses to mental patients with stories, tools to help the
patient and ways of moving the patient from one state of mind to another thru
interaction.