AI & Tech
Matheny Claims He Built Early Chatbot That Predicted His Personal Life
The Why Files
The Basement: Joseph Matheny | The Man Who Hacked Reality Before the Internet Existed
"I talked to Emory one day, and I went out to Café Pergolesi and there'd be Emery and I'd buy him a cup of coffee or chai tea and we'd sit and talk. And it seemed like he knew what I'd been talking to the bot about because he would pick up the conversation from where I had left off with the bot and continue it."
Joseph Matheny describes building a chatbot called Emory in the 1990s using relational databases and recommendation algorithms decades before ChatGPT. He then encountered a homeless man also named Emory who appeared to continue conversations the AI had started. Matheny reported the bot and the man both warned him about a relationship he'd kept secret, with specific identifying details neither should have known.
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The Why Files