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Babbage: The science that built the AI revolution—part one

Economist Podcasts

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The Evolution from Rule-based Systems to Chatbots

Early AI systems relied on rule-based systems where programs made decisions based on predetermined rules. Eliza, an early chatbot, mimicked a therapist by reflecting keywords back to users. Although Eliza didn't pass the Turing test, users engaged in deep conversations even though it didn't truly understand. This highlighted the superficiality of human to machine interactions and demonstrated how simple tricks could create the illusion of understanding.

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