Eliza Effect
While I was unaware of the term Eliza effect, I was familiar with the boom/bust of AI discussions when I began to read this chapter. I was most intrigued by the examples of those who, after interacting with the system for time sufficient enough to realize it’s limitations and break it down, choose to play into the system’s processes and willfully suspend (even further) disbelief; a look into the psyche of those people. I was also surprised by, but agree with, the author’s statement that the audience’s belief in the system’s intelligence comes from their own interpretation and expectation, not from the system’s complexity; ie. A simpler system (yes/no answer) provides the audience to fill in the gap and attribute more to the system… ironic, as we often look at advancements in AI beginning with more complex technology.
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Every speaker is given a uniqueness based on their language: clean and clinical, dialectic and conversational. I love the slight characterization that the interviewer attributes to themselves by their noting of the interviewee’s finger flexions in B.I. #48. It is especially funny when he comments on their “increasingly annoying” quality. Overall: an interesting look into the inner-workings of the male mind as it relates to (various) interactions with the female (with the exception of #42, who mentions his father’s work and discusses the disgusting quality of the ‘bare and uncovered’ male in a restroom).
