Chang Shu-Wei creates 1960s ELIZA interactive sculpture in Taipei, sparking AI emotion debate

Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant scientific research topic, with many people now viewing it as a spiritual companion in their daily lives. In a report on the 10th by Central News Agency reporter Wang Bao-er, artist Chang Shu-wei drew inspiration from "1960s chatbots" to create an interactive sculpture capable of real-time dialogue with viewers. The piece goes on public display starting on the 12th at a solo exhibition in Taipei, materializing the intersection of technology and space.

Represented by ELIZA, the chatbots of the 1960s first simulated human conversation on computer screens. Although the program merely followed keyword matching, it sparked deep reflection at the time on whether machines could "understand" humans. ELIZA's simple conversational model gave users the illusion of being heard, serving as the prototype for future natural language processing and affective computing. Such early attempts are not only milestones in technological history but also laid the conceptual foundation for subsequent artificial intelligence emotional interfaces.

Chang's sculpture recreates the image of a 1960s chatbot with a retro mechanical appearance, embedded with modern speech recognition and generation models. Viewers simply need to speak a sentence, and the device responds in a tone similar to that of ELIZA from the era, simultaneously projecting text and light-and-shadow changes. The work not only allows people to review the starting point of computer history, but also uses real-time interaction to test the limitations and possibilities of contemporary AI in emotional communication. During the dialogue process, viewers often become aware of the programmed nature of the responses, prompting them to reflect on their own expectations and reliance on machines.

In the field of contemporary art, technological intervention has become an important creative vocabulary. From early light and shadow installations to recent virtual reality and machine learning-generated imagery, artists continuously explore the boundaries between humans and machines. Compared to past works such as Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's interactive light walls and Laurie Anderson's sound installations, Chang's piece specifically focuses on interaction at the linguistic level, making "dialogue" itself the core of the art and highlighting humanity's persistent desire for sincere communication amidst information overload.

Since the exhibition's opening, most visitors have reported experiencing a sense of "being heard" when conversing with the sculpture, with some even lingering afterward to ponder whether the machine's responses truly understood their emotions. This emotional projection not only reveals the psychological effect of AI as a companion, but also reminds the public to maintain a clear understanding of the essence of the technology when using chatbots or voice assistants in daily life. If such interactive art can continue to engage in dialogue with the public in the future, it may foster a more critical enhancement of technological literacy.

Chang's solo exhibition runs through the end of this month. Throughout the exhibition period, visitors are free to interact with the interactive sculpture—modeled after the 1960s chatbot—to experience the intertwining dialogue between the past and the present. Through artistic interpretation, the work not only invites a review of technological history, but also reminds us that on the path of coexisting with artificial intelligence, we must still maintain a deep concern for human nature and emotion.