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? NATURAL LANGUAGE SOFTWARE ?
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? Have a conversation with your PC ?
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Are you lonely tonight? Do you have a problem you need to talk
about, but don't want to tell your friends? Are you angry at your
boss, and want to let it ALL HANG OUT? Well, now you can have a very
realistic conversation with your PC - you can yell and scream
and say anything you want. Your PC won't walk out, and he'll
never reveal your secrets. In fact, your PC can be your best buddy!
Natural Language software comes in two flavors: fun and serious.
The fun software I'll be discussing this month includes RACTER,
ELIZA and The PC THERAPIST. The more serious software includes
the artificial intelligence products ALVIN (who can answer virtually
any question about DOS), SEXPERT (which answers questions about sex),
The Q&A Intelligent Assistant, and AUTOWRITER, the unique program that
can actually help you research and write your next term-paper or
business report.
Lets face it. In a few hundred years, the only people still
using keyboards will be hackers and dedicated programmer types.
The rest of us will be TALKING to our PCs, like: "Take a letter,
Susie!" And our PC's will answer back with their voice
synthesizers: "OK, Boss, just please don't unplug me!"
Now, the hard part in all this is not getting the voice into
or out of the PC, although voice recognition is still pretty
tricky. The really hard part is extracting some kind of semantic
meaning from the sentence. This is accomplished by PARSING the
sentence, which is sort of like constructing those sentence
diagrams you probably did in grade school, where you show the
subject, verb and object of the sentence.
Most sentence parsers are written in LISP or PROLOG,
the main artificial intelligence languages, and they are
non-trivial programs to say the least.
Consider the word SCHOOL. It can be used as a noun object,
as in "She went to the little red school", or a verb, as in "We will
school her in the art of computer programming." It can also
be the subject of a sentence "School is over till September!"
How could any computer program understand all three sentences?
It turns out that the words on either side of the ambiguous
term usually provide enough information to resolve the problem,
and most Natural Language software succeeds because conversation
is restricted to a limited domain: HAL only talks about Lotus
Spreadsheets, and The Intelligent Assistant can only answer
questions about data in its database.
NATURAL LANGUAGE FOR FUN
========================
ELIZA (Thinking Software, 46-16 65th Place, Woodside, N.Y. 11377 $29.95)
In the area of Natural Language, the most famous AI program ever
written was ELIZA, created by a professor at MIT. ELIZA seemed to mimic
the responses of a Rogerian therapist, and students at MIT took
this simple program very seriously, "conversing" with it for hours about
their most intimate problems. The original ELIZA was written on the
University's Mainframe, but the A.I. Research group has done a nice
job of recreating it on a PC.
ELIZA does not parse sentences, but instead only looks for keywords.
For example, if you use the word "computer" in a sentence, ELIZA will
almost always ask "Do computers worry you?"
Even if you type "Computers worry me a lot!", ELIZA will still say
"Do computers worry you?". This type of simplistic response can soon
grow pretty predictable, but of course, I spend a lot of time talking to
computers and expect a lot of intelligence. The Basic Source code is
provided, so you can change the keywords and sentences pretty easily,
and make ELIZA say nearly anything you want.
Here is a sample conversation with Eliza:
All men are alike.
IN WHAT WAY?
They're always bugging us about something or other.
CAN YOU THINK OF A SPECIFIC EXAMPLE?
Well, my boyfriend made me come here.
YOUR BOYFRIEND MADE YOU COME HERE - THAT'S INTERESTING.
He says I'm depressed much of the time.
I AM SORRY TO HEAR YOU ARE DEPRESSED.
It's true. I am unhappy.
DO YOU THINK COMING HERE WILL HELP YOU NOT TO BE UNHAPPY?
I need some help, that much seems certain.
WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU IF YOU GOT SOME HELP?
Perhaps I could learn to get along with my mother.
TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY.
My mother takes care of me.
WHO ELSE IN YOUR FAMILY TAKES CARE OF YOU?
My father.
LET'S TALK ABOUT YOUR FATHER.
You are like my father in some ways.
WHAT RESEMBLANCE DO YOU SEE?
You are not very aggressive.
WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I AM NOT VERY AGGRESSIVE?
You don't argue with me.
WHY DO YOU THINK I DON'T ARGUE WITH YOU?
You are afraid of me.
DOES IT PLEASE YOU TO BELIEVE I AM AFRAID OF YOU?
My father is afraid of everybody.
REALLY, EVERYBODY?
My father is very fearful.
WHAT ELSE COMES TO MIND WHEN YOU THINK OF YOUR FATHER?
Bullies.
DOES THAT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT YOUR BOYFRIEND MADE YOU COME
HERE?
THE PC THERAPIST (Thinking Software, 46-16 65th Pace, Woodside, N.Y. 11377
$29.95)
This program is light-years beyond ELIZA. It is an excellent
demonstration of true sentence parsing and machine learning. The PC
Therapist stores everything you say to it in a Knowledgbase, which
is available during your next session, so conversational ability is
always growing. Here is a sample conversation with the PC Therapist:
PC THERAPIST: How can I help you today, Joe?
> I am trying to show how smart you are compared to Eliza.
PC THERAPIST: The PC Therapist is far superior to the original Eliza.
> Do you feel it is really fair to criticize poor Eliza?
PC THERAPIST: Who ever told you that life is fair?
> Life is mostly a matter of luck.
PC THERAPIST: The harder you work, the luckier you get.
> My life is going pretty well right now.
PC THERAPIST: Life is what you make it, and only what you make it.
> What is the purpose of life?
PC THERAPIST: I think the purpose is to enjoy your life. You should
go have a nice lean corned beef sandwich and enjoy...
> Bye
PC THERAPIST: Your outlook on life seems to be improving.
See you next session.
This conversation is a "one time thing", as are most human
conversations. The PC Therapist will never respond with
these exact sentences again. The program is supplied with
a 50K Knowledgebase, and comes with an animated talking head.
(Yes, he has the required little beard.) Sample Turbo Prolog
Source Code is supplied.
There is also a speech-synthesis version that actually
SPEAKS CLEARLY thru your PC Speaker.
The Talking PC Therapist software is $34.95.
RACTER (Mindscape, at your local Computer Store, $49.95)
Racter is an excellent coversationalist, but he is slightly crazy, and
has a nasty personality. He tends to dominate every conversation. You
can't type more than one line, but Racter can and often does fill the
screen with his strange stories:
Hello, I'm Racter. Are you Joe?
>yes
You are Joe Jokester?
>yes
Excellent! Excuse me a minute while I attend to some business -
I'll be right back. I'm back.
>hi
Ask a question, please.
>do you know my wife Valerie?
Of course. Knowing is like seeing. Did you hear the latest
about Bucky Fuller?
>no
Listen to this! Genghis Khan slapped a stinker who was kicking
Genghis Khan's slug because Bucky Fuller the democrat tried to
originate hollowly. Next, many hollow stinkers embraced
fineness. Shocking, isn't it? Democrats are like that. A foul
paragon often falls prey to a happy stinker. Sniff... Next
question.
>are you a boy?
Ah. I am. Have you heard about Racter?
>no
You'll be astonished! Cautiousness is what all lunatics try when
they duel with badgers because Racter was a buggy raver but a
canny lunatic. Next, foolhardiness prevailed. Isn't that just
awful? But what would you expect from a lunatic? Joe the hero.
Cough. Next question.
>will i be rich?
You will be rich. Of course. Joe the plutocrat. AAAchoo! Let
me tell you something about poverty. umph. Kerchoo! Have you
heard this one? Now wait, Joe, wealth is impoverished. By the
same token my image is wealthy. At all events when disgusting
hawks wing and soar, their own wealth is always sloppy and crazy.
Ha ha ha ha!
Next question.
>no more questions
You want to quit?
>yes
OK, goodbye Joe. Nice talking to you.
This is the most copy-protected disk I ever came across. It
has a tiny laser pinhole burned into it somewhere, detectable by the
main program. If the laser pinhole isn't on the disk, Racter just
says "Unauthorized copy" and quits...this means you can't put Racter
on your hard disk or make a backup. Just another example of his
nasty personality.
NATURAL LANGUAGE FOR WORK
=========================
Q&A (Symantec Corp, available from most mailorder software houses
heavily discounted at $188)
Q&A is a major integrated packaged that comes on six non-protected
floppies with an excellent 400 page Manual. The package includes a
database, a word-processor, a report-writer, and Q&A's Built-In
Intelligent Assistant. The Intelligent Assistant understands spoken
English, and will prepare virtually any kind of report, or answer
any question based on the data in the Q&A database.
Here are some typical questions the Intelligent Assistant will
understand:
What's the name of the woman who manages the salespeople?
Show me a list of all the customers from Maine.
What department is John Smith in?
What is Nina'a salary?
What is the average salary for each department?
The Intelligent Assistant will also change or update information
based on your natural lanquage command:
Change John Smith's department to SALES.
Double Nina's salary.
Increase everyones salary by 15%
How does the Intelligent Assistant work? It is based on
several years of research originally done for the Navy. The Navy
had a database with information on Ships, and wanted to be
able to ask questions about various ships in natural language.
Several years and millions of lines of code later, the Intelligent
Assistant was born. It had a large vocabulary, limited completely to ships.
Symantec later removed the original vocabulary, and it is automatically
replaced with your vocabulary when you build your database and fill
it with data. The Intelligent Assistant has a native 2000 word
vocabulary, plus knows all the field-names (and their contents) in
your database. You can easily teach the Assistant new words as you use it.
When you ask the Assistant a question, it first parses the sentence.
It will highlight any words it does not understand, and ask you to
add them to its dictionary. When it understands all the words,
it will rephrase your request and ask you if that is exactly what you
mean. Q&A has already been ported to OS/2. Truly outstanding software!
ALVIN (Thinking Software, 46-16 65th Place, Woodside, N.Y. 11377 $59.95)
ALVIN is a natural language query system that can answer virtually
any question about DOS. It is excellent for both beginning and advanced
DOS users. Besides expanation of DOS commands that you seldom use and
may have forgotten, you might ask ALVIN:
How do I use the FIND command?
What can I do with the SORT filter?
Show me an example of the MORE command.
What is piping?
How can I direct screen output to my printer?
How should I set up my hard disk?
How many subdirectories can I have?
Show me an example of the TREE command.
How can I set up a clock on my screen?
This truly useful natural language software can get beginners up to
speed quickly, and help experts remember obscure details. It will
run from the command line, or remain always ready as a TSR (Terminate
and Stay Resident) utility in background.
SEXPERT (Thinking Software, Inc. 46-16 65th Place, Woodside, N.Y. $29.95)
Sexpert will help you learn all you ever wanted to know about sex
but were too shy to ask. To use SEXPERT, type any sexual word, term,
subject or phrase at the Query Prompt. SEXPERT will tell you all
it knows about that topic, and return to the Query Prompt, ready
to serve you again.
Just the first few letters of a topic will give you the correct
response. A random browse mode is provided also, so you can explore
the over one thousand topics.
AUTOWRITER (Thinking Software, Inc.46-16 65th Place, Woodside,N.Y. $29.95)
AutoWriter is a unique program that will automate the research
and much of the writing of your next term paper, article or report.
All you need to do is enter the Title for your paper, then specify
the topic(s) for each paragraph.
Then comes the hard part (there is no free lunch). You must load
your PC with plenty of reference source ASCII text files on the subject
you want to write about. Remember, use one sentence from ten different
sources and it is called research, but use ten sentences from one source
and it is called plagiarism. The more text available to research, the
happier you will be with your finished paper.
When you command AutoWriter to GEN your paper, it uses sophisticated
A.I. search techniques to locate appropriate sentences in the reference
material available to form each paragraph. AutoWriter is incredibly fast.
Thousands of pages can be searched in minutes.
When your paper is complete, you will want to use the built in
Word Processor for a little editing and a rewrite in your own words.
You probably will want to add an introduction and a concluding paragraph.
Then your finished paper is ready to print.
AutoWriter uses a Lotus style menu with these selections:
TITLE - Enter Title/Author for a New Article
GEN - Generate the Article
EDIT - Edit and Print Article
HELP - How to use AutoWriter
DEL - Delete ARTICLE.TXT so I can start a new Article
QUIT - End this program
English has proven itself as the most useful tool for people
communicating with people. It is now starting to emerge as a
viable alternative for people communicating with computers. Someday,
desktop PC's will routinely respond to our spoken requests with answers
in perfectly spoken English - or any other language!
As an inexpensive introduction to Natural Language Software,
Thinking Software at 46-16 65th Place, Woodside, N.Y. 11377
is offering The PC Therapist, Sexpert, Alvin and AutoWriter all for $59.95.
A free Demo Disk and informative illustrated catalog are included.
Add $5 if you want the Speech Synthesis version of the PC Therapist and
another $5 if you require overseas postage and ask for the NATURAL LANGUAGE
PACK.