Your Pico-8 has something to say.
The power of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab (circa 1966) has been brought to the Pico-8. The software that once took on the Turing Test is now yours to command. Marvel as the illusion of a living computer breaks down within seconds!
ELIZA's creator, Joseph Weizenbaum, once wrote, "I had not realized ... that extremely short exposures to a relatively simple computer program could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people." Maybe you'll be powerfully deluded as well!
Features of this release:
- An interesting archaelogical look at early AI
- User-scriptable! (see blog for info)
- Reproduces precisely a famous ELIZA conversation
- Not based on the simplified BASIC version; this is the real deal!
While this release implements the most famous ELIZA script called "DOCTOR," I have endeavored to make it simple to create your own script. With Pico-8's 2MiB of RAM and the light footprint of the engine itself, it is theoretically possible to create much more advanced chatbots than could have been achieved in 1966.
More information and downloads available on itch.io now.
https://christopherdrum.itch.io/eliza8
Full blog post on how the script works, so you can write your own is also posted.
https://christopherdrum.itch.io/eliza8/devlog/255329/customizing-eliza8-scripts
Oh wow, between PicoCalc & this, you are really taking me back, though I had the simplified BASIC version on my TRS-80 :).
This is actually epic ! Wow the memories from playing this on the Apple ][.
@ChristopherD you should post your cartridge here in Lexaloffle where it will definitely see more traffic.
In any case, you have my STAR.
@lolboi That's just good ole' Helvetica Neue (bold); a popular font back in the era when Eliza was originally developed.
@ChristopherD You may have already seen this, but a group of scientists found an early version of Weizenbaum's code and revived the original Eliza! The code is here: https://github.com/rupertl/eliza-ctss and the paper describing the process is here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.06707 - thought this might be of interest to you.
@2bitchuck Yes, a million times yes. Thank you! After I finish up the Status Line v3 update, I'd like to revisit this and make some adjustments to align better to the original. I appreciate the heads-up!
[Please log in to post a comment]
