‘ELIZA,’ the world’s 1st chatbot, was just resurrected from 60-year-old computer code

By Kristina Killgrove published January 17, 2025 Researchers discovered long-lost computer code and used it to resurrect the early chatbot ELIZA. Scientists have just resurrected “ELIZA,” the world’s first chatbot, from long-lost computer code — and it still works extremely well. Using dusty printouts from MIT archives, these “software archaeologists” discovered defunct code that had been lost for 60 years and brought it back to life. ELIZA was developed in the 1960s by MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum and named for Eliza Doolittle, the protagonist of the play “Pygmalion,” who was taught how to speak like an aristocratic British woman. As a language model that the user could interact with, ELIZA had a significant impact on today’s artificial intelligence (AI), the researchers wrote in a paper posted to the preprint database arXiv Sunday (Jan. 12). The “DOCTOR” script written for ELIZA was programmed to respond to questions as a psychotherapist would. For example, ELIZA would say, “Please tell me your problem.” If the user input “Men are all alike,” the program would respond, “In what way.” Weizenbaum wrote ELIZA in a now-defunct programming language he invented, called Michigan Algorithm Decoder Symmetric List Processor (MAD-SLIP), but it was almost immediately copied into the language Lisp. With the advent of the early internet, the Lisp version of ELIZA went viral, and the original version became obsolete. Read More At Live Science.

27 Years Later, Stephen King’s Controversial X-Files Episode Is Still Worth Revisiting

With over two decades’ worth of content, not every The X-Files episode will hit home for audiences. The monster-of-the-week series created by Chris Carter has famously had peaks and valleys, particularly following David Duchovny’s departure from The X-Files. But even in its heyday, some episodes have not met the mark, even with the help of a published author. In Season 5, Episode 10, entitled “Chinga,” prolific horror writer Stephen King wrote an episode for the series. In classic horror fashion, the episode follows the activities of the titular evil doll in the hands of a young girl named Polly. Naturally, misfortune follows her wherever she goes. King was a fan of the series at the time and had expressed an interest in writing an episode. Despite his pop culture presence, “Chinga” is not always viewed favorably. Many fans have decried that the concept is tired, and Mulder and Scully were written out of character. But with three decades to ruminate on the episode, there are still some moments worth turning in for. Scully Gets to Work Her Own Case The X-Files is largely defined by the push and pull between its two lead actors. Mulder and Scully arguably defined the male-female partnership that became so prevalent in procedurals down the line. Mulder’s belief in the occult contradicts Scully’s skepticism and works wonderfully until the rare occasion when they come together. But now and then, fans are due for a shake-up. Even though Mulder is relegated to barely a supporting role in the episode, Scully gets the chance…