Eliza, Hal, and Artificail Intelligence

So I played around with the little Eliza artificial intelligence, wanna be, incompetent, sorta-but-not-really psychiatrist computer. I have to say that I was not to impressed. My only real experience with artificial intelligence- or rather just a computer that talks to you- is Hal, for 2001: Space Odyssey. Comparing Eliza to Hal was a little disappointing. I mean, Hal was smart, no offense Eliza. But, in her defense, Hal is fake. Anyway, minus the fact that Hal was fiction, he was way better than Eliza, I mean he was smart and even managed to kill the crew of the ship. Moving along from Space Odyssey (Note: this movie might have been cool thirty years ago, but, now it seems tediously long, just FYI), after “talking” with Eliza about how she was dumb and thinking about Hal, I started actually trying to relate these things to the class.
Looking beyond Eliza’s obvious problems: not working, not helping me with my problems, and frustrating all that try to talk with her, I think that in the end she’s alright. In fact, when you talk with Eliza you sometimes forget that she is a computer and not a real person (Kinda the same effect as talking to an AIM Bot that you didn’t realize was a computer). This idea got me thinking into the immersive power of games. Many times, people play video games and that where it stops, just a game, there is no stronger effect. Yet, sometimes people get so into a game that you forget that you are in a game, that that treasure you found isn’t real, that you try so hard not to get your computer player killed, forgetting that you will just come back to life, stuff like that.
Overall, I think that is why video games are the new narrative. Quite simply, you are put in the story. Sure, when you read a novel you or a story you sometimes get lost in it, picturing the narrative in your head. But video games are different. You are in the story, you make the story in many cases. So I think that you can write a whole entry about why Eliza is good and bad, and what works and what doesn’t. But I think the main thing that I got from Eliza is the feeling that, while she might not be so great, the fact that you can get lost in a conversation with a computer is startling. Fifteen, twenty years ago nothing like that would have been possible, just imagined, like Hal. But now, games and artificial intelligence, even in its basic form is changing how we play and interact as a society.