Re-reading ELIZA: Human–machine Interaction as Cognitive Sense-ability. Issue 94 (2nd October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Treusch, Pat
• Is Part Of: Australian feminist studies. Volume 32:Issue 94(2017)
• Page Start: 411
• Page End: 426
• Publication Date: 2017-10-02
• Subjects: Feminism -- Periodicals; Feminism -- Australia -- Periodicals; Women's studies -- Periodicals; Women's studies -- Australia -- Periodicals; 305.42
• DOI: 10.1080/08164649.2017.1466647
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0816-4649

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article re-reads ELIZA, the famous computer program of early artificial intelligence created by Joseph Weizenbaum in 1966 to test the possibility of intelligent interaction between humans and machines through language. Given newly emerging intelligent gadgets such as smart-home assistants that operate through natural language, I argue firstly for the timeliness of this program and explore the ways in which ELIZA stimulated debates concerning whether it could be considered an interlocutor for humans or a failure in exactly this regard. Secondly, I develop a feminist technoecological account of interaction at the ELIZA/user interface. In so doing, I seek to challenge the dualisms between body/mind, rationality/affectivity, and subject/object, thereby avoiding a reductionist perspective that calls into question the human subject as an autonomous agent.