Ernie the Attorney

Or Why (& not how) ActiveWords Works

“Alice,” I said to my favorite waitress at my favorite restaurant, “I’d like a hamburger with fries and a Coke.” Eventually, given my status as a medium tipper, the hamburger arrived. That’s how we humans talk to each other. When I’m home, though, I’ve learned that it’s better to be a little more hesitant. “While you’re up, would you mind getting me a Coke,” works a lot better with my wife. With my kids, on the other hand, “Clean your room, now,” sometimes gets results. My point is that over the last hundred thousand years or so, we humans have learned what works and what doesn’t work when we communicate with each other.

In all three of the examples, what worked was to tell someone what task we wanted done. What we don’t do, is specify the steps that are needed to perform the task. Can you imagine how unworkable a restaurant would be if Alice didn’t work there, and the cook didn’t speak English? I would have to get up from my table, walk across the room, open a door to the kitchen – making sure not to bump into another amateur walking out the in-door – waive to the cook to get his attention, point to the refrigerator, point to the ground beef and then to the cheese, and so on. That whole process is what you go through whenever you try to do something with a computer.

Let’s say, you are typing a letter to John, one of your clients, and in the middle of things, you want to email Sue and ask a question so that you can include the answer in your letter to John. Well, since Alice doesn’t work inside your computer, and since the computer only understands one-step-at-a-time directions, what you have to do is:

• 1. Minimize the word processor window;
• 2. Open your email program;
• 3. Click on the Create Mail button;
• 4. Type in either Sue’s name or email address;
• 5. Click in the Subject line and enter the subject; and
• 6. Type the message.

Now, that is a relatively simple example of what it is like to use a computer. If you want to create a reminder to look for Sue’s response and then to finish the letter to John, you have to go through the same one-step-at-a-time directions to accomplish that task as well. About the only thing you can say about computers is that the mouse driven interface is vastly better than the old command line interface with its parameters and permutations of commands that simply couldn’t be memorized by anyone lacking a piece of white tape to hold the bridge of their glasses together. What doesn’t work with the mouse interface, however, is a hundred thousand years of human evolution.

We don’t talk to computers the same way that we talk to human beings. Consequently, we aren’t hard-wired the same way that computers are, and if they don’t communicate with us very well, it is *their* fault and not ours. Gosh, isn’t that a radical thought. Ever since you bought your first computer, you’ve been told that it's your fault if you aren’t sure when to click, when to right-click, and when to double-click. Well, guess what? It’s not your fault. Computers aren’t very good at communicating. As proof of that statement, have you ever, even once, heard anyone talk about the good old days when it comes to computers? The old days were horrible, but they have gotten slightly better. That’s the reality.

It seems to me that what’s necessary is to convince Alice to switch from working at the restaurant to working inside your computer. That’s what the ActiveWords folks did. At least, that’s how I think of what’s happening. When I’m working away at a letter, and I want to send an email to Sue, all I need to do is type, “eSue” – “e” for email and “Sue” for Sue. You can use your own vocabulary, if you don’t like mine. ActiveWords, or Alice as I think of her, only needs to be told the task, not the specific one-step-at-a-time directions. The net result is that my computer understands what I’m saying rather than me struggling to try to understand the computer. Things get done in the same way that they get done between human beings, and using a computer is a more pleasant and efficient process.

Yes, you can do lots of things with ActiveWords, but it is the “why” it works that it the significant breakthrough with the program. Traditional definitions of artificial intelligence all look to whether a machine can act like a human being. It seems to me that a computer with ActiveWords has crossed over the threshold. Barely, but definitely. That’s a milestone.

by Rick Talcott

Last update: 6/5/2003; 10:07:41 PM.