ELIZA was one of the first chatbots and was created by Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT between 19. Speculation as to whether computers could demonstrate credible responses to inputs is reflected in the relatively simple chatbot example that uses keywords to produce a “knowing” response, or follow up question. Machine learning is a term coined by Arthur Samuel in 1959 through his research at IBM on game development, with the ultimate goal to reduce or even eliminate the need for “detailed programming effort.” 3 The roots of how computers might begin to write their own programs lie in older discussions of artifical intelligence. Given the large volume of data being produced and mined, and its widespread application in everyday voice-controlled devices such as Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Echo 2 to more sinister applications in border control face recognition software, it is hardly surprising that machine learning has become big business. We use this historical example to introduce this final chapter of the book which is on machine learning, 1 broadly defined as a collection of models, statistical methods and operational algorithms that are used to analyze experimental or observational data. This chapter begins with a flowchart that describes how a chatbot works - both in terms of procedure and logic.

Image copyright Communications of the ACM 61 Figure 10.1: Basic flow diagram of keyword detection of ELIZA by Joseph Weizenbaum (1966).

Hito steyerl pattern discrimination