Interactive installation, AI chat bot, 1983/2024
In 1984, as an undergraduate student at San Jose State University, I was introduced to MIT computer scientist Joseph Weizembaum’s ELIZA (1967), a digital interactive chatbot psychotherapist—which he created as an example of why we should not trust AI, only to see ELIZA celebrated as a solution to helping to solve the mental health crisis in the 1970’s. Inspired by his work, I created my first interactive artwork in 1983, “The Computerized Confessional” which invited users to kneel at an Apple II computer and go through the process of the sacrament of Catholic confession. The work was intended as a transgressive act, representing my emerging atheism, but perhaps more importantly, the first project I created that reflected my sceptical engagement with digital technologies. This new edition of the work was built upon a version of ELIZA created in 1997 by George Dunlop.