Conversational computing had its roots in 1966, reports Market Research Journalism in a brief recounting of chatbot history. The first known chatbot was called ELIZA.
ELIZA worked by detecting words in a user’s question and cross-referencing them to a pre-set collection of responses.
Matching similarities created the illusion of understanding. For example, if a user entered, ‘My mom is a great cook,’ the system would respond, ‘Tell me more about your family.’
The name ‘Eliza’ is thought to be inspired by the play, Pygmalion, which had a character whose speech kept improving over time
Other forerunning chatbots include PARRY, RACTER, and JABBERWACKY.
The Story of ELIZA, the First Chatbot Developed In The 1960s
MR JOURNALISM | September 12, 2019 | by Dorothy Crotts
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SEE RELATED STORY
‘Eliza mimics a Rogerian psychotherapist.‘ – from med-ai.com