Early Conversational UI/Natural Language Interface
Eliza 1963
“ELIZA is an early natural language processing computer program created from 1964 to 1966[1] at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Joseph Weizenbaum.”
“Created to demonstrate the superficiality of communication between humans and machines, Eliza simulated conversation by using a “pattern matching” and substitution methodology that gave users an illusion of understanding on the part of the program, but had no built in framework for contextualizing events…. ELIZA was one of the first chatterbots, but was also regarded as one of the first programs capable of passing the Turing Test.” (Wikipedia)
Fictional Voice Assistants
Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey
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WOPR from Wargames 1983
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Apple Knowledge Navigator 1987
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Her, 2013
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dJTU48_yghs
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CUI Interface Timeline
1964: Eliza
2011: Siri—the first voice-enabled Virtual Assistant
2015: Amazon Echo (Alexa). During this period there is a renewed interest in chatbots. Facebook has M, Slack’s Slackbot, Read about other top chatbots
2016: Google Home.
2018 Google Duplex (Which voice is the AI?)
2019-20 Amazon Echo Expanded: Echo Show, Echo Auto, Echo Look, Echo Loop—(Amazon has always struggled to make money off Alex. The company originally thought people would purchase more stuff because they used the device, but that never panned out.)
2020: GPT-3 Technology Review Article on GPT-3 Using the NLP model, computers can produce not only human like dialogue/text but computers can even write code.
2022: ChatGPT-3
2023: ChatGPT-4. The integration of ChatGPT into Microsoft Word. Plug-ins for Figma. | Claude
2024: ChatGPT by OpenAI created a voice feature for mobile. Developed longer term memory for interactions. (Download and enable voice feature for mobile separately) | Astra | Claude 3.5
Future Explorations: Neural Links
Neuralink, also Wired article about Neuralink
“The Long Search for a Computer that Speaks to Your Mind”
Multi-modal Agents that Travel with You
The failed Rabbit’s R1 and Humane’s AI pin.
New wearable promo video: Friend