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Cover Quote: March 1993

At its most basic, [Joseph] Weintraub’s program draws on a “knowledge base” of more than 6,000 sentences compiled by Mr. Weintraub. Like an old-fashioned English teacher, the program uses standard grammar rules to “diagram” each question posed of it; then it extracts key words, determines the topic—the Clarence Thomas hearings, for example—and finds the relevant answers in its knowledge base.

The program, which runs on an I.B.M. PC-compatible and which Mr. Weintraub sells under the title PC Professor, creates the illusion of an opinionated person. Indeed, Mr. Weintraub—has injected his iconoclastic personality into the program.

The text of the interview [of the reporter with the program]—is excerpted below and includes spelling errors, other mistakes and ellipses that were made by the program—

Q: Did you watch the Clarence Thomas hearings on Capitol Hill?

A: Even today, women wear earrings and ponytails far more often than men! May God please help me! We were discussing you, not me.

Q: Wait, do you think Clarence Thomas is a sexist?

A: Claraence talked dirty to his young employee Anita and was rewarded by his male colleagues with a seat on the Supreme Court!

Q: It sounds like you are a feminist.

A: After several years of careful analysis, it has been determined that men wear pants, while women wear dresses.



- John Markoff
Cocktail-Party ConversationWith a Computer, 1992
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