The History Of Chatbots – ELIZA To ALEXA | Best Of 2022

Introduction

Since time immemorial, AI chatbots have been in existence, lurking in the shadows of technological progress. However, it wasn’t until the early 1990s that they began to gain popularity amongst both end-users and corporate entities, fueled by the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning, alongside an influx of trendy applications.

The conversational interface that chatbots provide has proved to be an invaluable asset across various domains, harnessing their potential to serve multifarious purposes. This treatise aims to delve into the intricacies of the history of chatbots, their inception, the technology that enables their operations, and the fundamental architecture that propels their functioning. Thus, it is only fitting that we embark on this journey of discovery.

But first,

What Are Chatbots?

At its core, a chatbot represents a remarkable feat of programming prowess, deftly replicating the nuances of human conversation through artificial intelligence. With their unparalleled capabilities, chatbots have become a ubiquitous presence across a spectrum of industries, functioning as a lifeline in the domain of customer service by diligently addressing customer inquiries and troubleshooting their problems.

The potential of chatbots extends beyond the confines of customer service, finding utility in the sphere of sales as well, where they act as virtual assistants, offering unparalleled insights into products and services to address customer queries. It is hard to overstate the versatility of chatbots, for they have found applications across diverse fields, saving valuable time and resources for businesses.

How Do Chatbots Work?

At the crux of chatbot technology lies the quintessence of artificial intelligence (AI), a remarkable feat of engineering ingenuity that allows them to decipher the intricacies of human communication and proffer solutions that are tailor-made to the user’s requirements. Through a process of continual refinement, chatbots are imbued with the ability to assimilate and learn from each interaction with their customers, attuning themselves to their specific needs and preferences.

With access to ever-increasing swathes of data, chatbots are endowed with a profound insight into the needs of their users, allowing them to offer bespoke solutions that cater to their requirements with unwavering accuracy.

Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

At the intersection of technology and linguistics, lies the enigmatic field of natural language processing (NLP), a giant in the world of artificial intelligence that seeks to unravel the complexities of human communication. At the forefront of this domain, stand chatbots, imbued with an arsenal of tools ranging from sentiment analysis to predictive analysis, enabling them to decipher the intricacies of human communication with ease.

By leveraging the power of NLP, chatbots can effortlessly decipher the semantic nuances of a user’s question, unlocking the hidden meanings that lie within, providing prescient responses that address the user’s needs with precision. Furthermore, NLP empowers chatbots with the ability to identify pertinent keywords in a user’s query, thereby arming them with the requisite knowledge to offer a cogent and relevant solution to the user’s predicament.

Machine Learning

ML, also known as machine learning is a type of AI (Artificial Intelligence) enables chabots to learn and improve eventually. This means that chatbots can get smarter and better at completing tasks, which is essential for businesses looking to use chatbots for customer service or sales. Machine learning can also help chatbots handle more complex tasks, such as responding to customer complaints or answering questions about products. Machine learning is a key part of chatbot development and will continue to be so as chatbots become more prevalent in business.

General Architecture of Chatbots

An appropriate chatbot architectural design can assist in learning about chatbots and other aspiring chatbot designers. There are therefore several architectural designs suggested (Tables 1 and 2). Khanna and colleagues (2015) propose an architectural approach specific to rule-based chatbots. Wu and colleagues (2015) likewise present a specific architecture to retrieve chatbots. The documents don’t have any design. Zumstein and Hundertmark (2017) connect the chatbots KnowledgeBase to other databases to give the user answers. However, there’s no essential service such as sentiment research or ambiguity handling.

1. Chatbot Interface components

Typically Chatbots receive requests from the user through an application that accepts text or voice data.

2. User Message Analysis Component

Message analysis components of the User Interface are used by the Controller. The messages of a user may be kept as a plaintext that retains all the syntax structures of inputs unchanged. By using a chatbot, the user expresses the purpose he/she intends. Generally, the chatbot will learn the user’s intent to act.

3. Dialog management component in Chatbots

The Dialog Manager Component controls the context of the conversations. This maintains the present intent and the identified entities till the moment in which a communication begins. Whenever a chatbot is not generating sufficient information about its context, a user can request another contextual data from the user to fill out the missing entity. In addition, it asks follow-up questions when intentions are recognized ( Kucherba et al., 2017 ). In the dialogue management components, the modules usually include the following. The problem of the confusing handling. These modules provide responses when chatbots do not recognize user input.

4. Backend

The chatbot can get the data necessary to perform the user intent from the back end via calls to external APIs. When the required details are retrieved, the information is sent into the Dialog Management module and the response generator module. In chatbots using rules, a knowledge base can be created. This list of handwritten responses corresponds to user input. For a chatbot to stay stable it should have a knowledge base covering a wide range of questions from users.

5. Response generation component

Response Generation components produce responses using several available models. This model uses rules to select a response from a set of rules but generates no text responses. Dialog Management component passes placeholders required for response templates in the Response Generation module. Rules are modeled on a Knowledge Base that contains information about conversational patterns. The retrieval-based model provides more flexibility since it selects the optimal answer by checking and analyzing resource availability via APIs.

Now that you have learned about chatbots and their general architecture. Let’s jump to the beginning.

The Beginning: Turing Test

History of chatbots began in 1950. Alan Turing was a prominent German codebreaker at the end of the war. Turing questioned how computers communicate without knowing that the interlocutors were artificial. Known by most as The Turing Test the question has become a generative idea for chatbots. 

The Turing test challenged scientists to design a program that is distinctly indistinguishable from human conversation. A jury could converse anonymously in text form with computer programs or even with a man operating a computer. They are looking at which person or program they are observing. This problem is the cause of the growing number of chatbot technologies in existence.

Further, the work of Alan Turing was taken with great interest by Joseph Weizenbaum MIT began in the 1960s, the professor and German Scientist at Massachusetts. (To bring the first chatbot named Liza started in 1966).

History of chatbots – chatbot development over time

Eliza Chatbot History

Meet ELIZA: The First Chatbot

Liza, popularly known as ELIZA is one of the first milestone in the history of chatbots listed earlier in this article. ELiza chatbot history precisely started with Turing test, later adopted by Joseph Weizenbaum in 1966. ELISA used pattern matching methodologies and substitution to simulate conversations. The program resembles human interaction.

The chatbot ELIZA acts by bypassing the words entered into computers and combining these with possible scripted responses. The simulations of intervention were performed by ELIZA. The sentences are returned by the user Weizenbaum. Its communication abilities were limited, but they helped inspire the further development of other chatbots (Klópfenstein and colleagues, 2017, 2017). ELIZA uses patterns matching and responses selection using a template (Brandtzaeg & Flstad 2017)

The script was widely recognized for enhancing language processing and enhancing intelligence in the academic environment by extending copies and variations. However, ELIZA chatbot history has been well documented for over centuries to come.

Chatbot PARRY 

Parry makes it to the second on the history of chatbots. The parry was built by US psychiatrist Kenneth Colby in 1972. It mimics patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. This program aims to mimic the illness. Natural language programs are similar to individual thought and are based on natural language. PARRY operates based on a complex system involving assumption, assignment, and emotional response based on the weighting assigned concerning the verbal input. Parry’s results have been validated with an alternative test of Turing’s Turing test. In the early seventies, interrogators using remote keyboards could not differentiate PARRY’s origin from the paranoid individual.

Jabberwacky

In 1988, it tried to create an enjoyable, natural dialogue with humans. It was developed in partnership with British software architect Robert Rollo Carr and uses AI techniques called ‘Contextual Pattern Match’. This bot differed from the previous Chatbot that had a static database. By taking phrases used by the human user and adding those to their database, the software made a huge leap. Rollo said Jabberwacky should serve fewer purposes than assistants. Eventually, he would develop AI capable of beating the Turing test, and a similar algorithm. Carpenter imagined Jabberwacky as talking pets of some sort.

Dr. Sbaitso

Dr. Sbaitso was a chatbot developed at Creative Labs in 1992 for Microsoft Dos. It is the first attempt to integrate AI in a chatbot and is recognized for its comprehensive voice-based chatting system. The program conversed with users as if they were psychologists. Most responses were simpler or more logical than complex interactions. Sources of information.

L.I.C.E. (Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity)

It uses heuristic matching patterns for conversational linguistics in chats. In 1995 Wallace conceived and built Alice. It had previously been named Alicebot since its running started on a computer named Alice. It uses the AIML schema that provides information about a set of communication rules in the language of conversation. Its development began in 1998 as Java software. In 2001 Wallace published an AIML specification. From that point on other developers wrote free and open-source AlICE for various programming languages and several languages.

SmarterChild

This Smart child has many similarities to Siri and was developed in 2001. AOL Messenger has provided chatbots that can be used in the Messenger app for MSN Messenger. It provides easy and enjoyable communication through quick data entry into other applications. Microsoft also built its own SmarterChild, years after most people stopped using AIM targeted at 18- to 24-year-olds in the United States, the account suites particular Conversation.

WeChat

In 2009 In China, Wechat created an improved Chatbot. Since WeChat was released, its users have demonstrated enduring loyalty to it. The social network platform is very successful. This allows for a quick and simple chatbot build process. The tool is now considered the simplest way marketers or employers could cut down on their work as a result of their interactions with their customers on the Web.

Sirius

Apple created Siri on the iPhone in 2010. It’s an intuitive assistant that uses the natural language UI. Afterward, the AI bots and a PA were integrated. A new Apple app aims to allow people to talk to Siri via messages. It is similar to an earlier one issued this month and includes deeper integration of audio, video, and image files. Like many of the apps on Facebook and Twitter Siri is said to be capable of carrying out current tasks and does not require any user to talk aloud.

Google Now/Google Assistant

Google Launches Google – Now. In 2012, a Google launch took place. Upon request, the chatbot software will answer a query, perform an action and provide recommendations for websites. Its inclusion included updates and modifications to mobile searches and a woman-voiced assistant that rivals Apple Siri. Google Now initially offered users contextually based information according to location and time. The card grew in complexity and sophistication with many content types available. Sometimes we call them predictive searches. The current smartphone version is designed with several new features.

21st-Century Chatbots

The arrival of the new millennium introduced many new chatbot innovations pushing the ELIZA chatbot history aside. The chatbots developed as part of the pattern recognition technology began showing advanced algorithms. This helped them gain knowledge from interactions with humankind. Chatbots have taken their place in history and conversations have begun to reveal new intelligence.

Chatbots: Virtual Assistants

It’s been 10 years since we got personal assistants such as Siri and Google Now. It is a new way that chatbots can do their jobs in a human environment. Chatbots are available for all kinds of applications. Amazon introduced Alexa in 2015. Integrating into Alexa’s voice assistant, Alexa has voice interaction abilities that allow for performing commands in voice commands or a text. Alexa’s vocal ability is not perfect. Engati has developed an extremely unique voice chatbot with greater reliability.

Chatbot Echo

Chatbots have come a long way since their primitive beginnings in the early 1950s. However, chatbots remained relatively unknown until Amazon released its Echo device in 2014. The Echo, which featured the voice-activated assistant Alexa, was a game-changer for chatbots. With the release of the Echo, chatbots became more mainstream and began to be used for more complex tasks such as customer service and even sales.

Since then, artificial intelligence has rapidly advanced, and chatbots have become even more prevalent in business. Gartner predicts that by 2020, chatbots will handle 85% of all customer service interactions. The availability of chatbots round-the-clock and their prompt responsiveness to customer inquiries make them a preferred choice for businesses. Furthermore, their ability to accommodate massive magnitudes of customer interactions, especially for enterprises that encounter augmented call volumes, further enhances their value proposition.

Chatbot Alexa

If there is one chatbot that exemplifies the future of business, it is undoubtedly Amazon’s Alexa, a paragon of natural language processing (NLP) that has redefined the contours of human-computer interaction. Equipped with a potent set of capabilities, Alexa boasts of an unparalleled ability to comprehend and respond to a gamut of user queries, ranging from the mundane to the esoteric. But her true potency lies in her ability to control other devices in the home, effortlessly turning on the lights or adjusting the thermostat with a simple voice command.

A veritable jack-of-all-trades, Alexa can cater to a host of needs, from scheduling appointments to adding items to a to-do list and even ordering products from Amazon. As chatbots like Alexa continue to evolve and advance, they will undoubtedly become even more ubiquitous in business, redefining the contours of human-computer interaction as we know it.

Messaging Apps

As the digital landscape continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, 2017 proved to be a watershed moment for bots, as they ascended to new heights of popularity across a plethora of messaging platforms. Facebook, WhatsApp, Kik, and a slew of other messaging services have embraced the power of bots, leveraging their uncanny ability to interact with users seamlessly on this platform.

And with users spending increasingly fewer hours on messages, Facebook, and Twitter, the imperative of engaging with clients online has never been more acute. Enter Engati, a trailblazing platform that empowers users to build their very own chatbots with consummate ease, directly leveraging the messaging platform. But Engati doesn’t stop there; it goes a step further, enabling users to sell products and services directly through the bot, thereby saving precious time on the purchase process.

WhatsApp Chatbot

WhatsApp, the globally renowned messaging application, is on the verge of unleashing a newfangled chatbot embedded with the potency of artificial intelligence in the year 2022. The chatbot is fashioned with a conversational interface, adept at managing sundry chores such as customer service and sales. The underlying aspiration is to elevate WhatsApp’s profile as an all-encompassing and ultimate destination for all messaging-related requisites. Such a development is monumental in the domain of chatbots and artificial intelligence, and it portends a seismic shift for businesses worldwide.

KIK Chatbot

Among the innumerable chatbots utilized by millions, KIK reigns supreme as a popular choice. Its functionalities encompass an extensive gamut of tasks, ranging from conventional messaging and calling services to sophisticated food ordering systems. Besides, KIK has been intricately engaged in the inception of chatbot technology, and has devised a pioneering platform that empowers developers to fashion tailored chatbots.

WATSON

It was half a decade after the advent of chatbots that IBM unravelled the world’s first ever chatbot to vie in the enthralling game of ‘Jeopardy!’ on TV. Dubbed as WATSON, this chatbot surpassed several erstwhile Champion contenders, ushering in an era that exalted the efficacy of conversations to stratospheric heights.

The Future of Artificial Intelligence

The future of artificial intelligence in business is looking bright. With the rapid advancement of technology, chatbots are only going to get better at emotional responses and complicated interaction strategies. The advanced bot will be able to handle more complex queries and tasks apart from automating conversations as a daily task.

The incorporation of artificial intelligence in business operations is poised to unlock a plethora of benefits, including heightened data acquisition capabilities that will furnish businesses with a deeper understanding of their patrons’ idiosyncrasies and desires. Armed with such insights, businesses will harness chatbots to create custom experiences, thus conferring a higher degree of personalization upon their customers. A future brimming with such possibilities is on the horizon.

Exactly how does the chatbot future look like

As we hurtle towards an uncertain future, one thing is crystal clear: the meteoric rise of chatbots shows no signs of abating anytime soon. As these intelligent agents continue to carve a niche for themselves in the fiercely competitive world of marketing, it’s only a matter of time before businesses of all hues start to adopt them in droves. Indeed, the writing is on the wall, and it’s apparent that industries such as customer service, retail, and travel are the low-hanging fruit that will likely be the first to take the plunge.

And while we can’t predict with absolute certainty how these industries will leverage chatbots, one thing is certain: the future is ripe with possibilities, and chatbots will undoubtedly play a vital role in shaping it.

Conversational Artificial Intelligence

Chatbots are likely to evolve to become more conversation-driven AI (conversations-led artificial intelligence). Users want Bots capable of understanding the questions they are asking or the interactions they have done previously. Generation X and the new generation become increasingly socialized. To reduce the stigma around loneliness and mental illness for millennials to be able to respond appropriately and sensitively to questions from users based on conversations with their parents. Engati’s Chatbots provide conversation context to account holders.

Chatbot Technology Adoption

Chatbots are changing how we manage our customers’ processes. Increasing competition for products and services is driving companies to increase efficiency to achieve greater profit margins and lower costs for the organization. What is the point of businesses wasting time and resources on mundane and repetitive tasks? Chatbots are easy to use. Oracle conducted surveys with over 800 decision-makers in organizations in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. 90% of the respondents had used Chatbots before 2020 or are planning for it.

The customer experience (CX) will drive chatbot adoption

AI chatbot improves businesses’ communication with their consumers. Using an ai chatbot will connect your customers with high-quality customer support and better customer support using sentiment analysis. In the case of companies whose revenues exceed $1B, the annual increase would be about $823 million. By using AI Chatbots, companies can improve the user experience through automating various business activities like lead generation, FAQs, and feedback from customers. Tell me the best way to use a chatbot to enhance customer experience?

Social media will dominate the adoption of AI

Social networks do nothing more than make friends. With time, this can be used to voice opinions, order products or services or provide feedback or get in touch with a business. Thus, businesses must employ chatbots if they want a way of communicating with users on their platforms. More than 100,000 bot users use Facebook Messenger. Businesses in various industries employ chatbots to better understand the customer’s needs. Leveraging AI across social networks can help in tracking customer behavior in an instant.

Chatbots will be more human alike

In a recent report, Global Market Insights said the Chatbot market size will exceed $1 billion globally in 2025. So chatbots will continue to serve as the main source of business communication. The NLP bot uses sentiment analysis and predictive analytics to analyze the conversation with a query to better understand what it means. As chatbot usage increases in businesses, there is a need for better practices in the use of chatbots. SpiceWorks The biggest challenge is:

Histiry Of Chatbots FAQs

When was the first chatbot invented?

ELIZA: It is regarded as the first email bot developed by Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT. This phrase was coined in 1994 by a company named “chatbot”.

Who invented chatbots?

An MIT scientist invented the first Chatbot in the early 60s. The word ELIZA came to mind. You can also see what popular ELIZA chatbots have become over time. In 2009, WeChat in China launched a much-improved chatbot.

How did chatbots evolve?

Most humans recognize Watson, but some may not realize the evolution of this chatbot to one that uses machine learning. Chatbot technology is becoming a household staple with Apple Siri as well as Amazon Alexa.

What are chatbots replacing?

Chatbots will grow as AI technology evolves. However, chatbots can’t be replaced by humans and will continue to function.

Why are chatbots the future of marketing?

It also gives users feedback directly. Using this feedback we have helped personalize the user experience. These features make chatbots very useful for promoting products. The business is looking to offer customers better experiences.

Conclusion

History of chatbots went down the lane of ageless beauty. Eliza chatbot history along with the parry has been one of the first milestone that created the very history of chatbots.

With the rapid advancement of conversational artificial intelligence, chatbots are only going to become more prevalent in business. A broad range of chatbot future trends will emerge to bring technological growth to business processes. History of chatbots is long gone. So what does the future hold for chatbots? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure: chatbots are here to stay.

And if you need help getting started, our team at 12 channels is happy to assist. So what are you waiting for? Contact us today and let us show you how chatbot marketing can benefit your business! You may be surprised at how well it works!