Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

Weizenbaum, Joseph 509Access Protocol (see soap), the Web Services DescriptionLanguage (WSDL), and the Universal Description Discoveryand Integration (UDDI), which can coordinate and“broker” the services. To keep requester and responder onthe same page (so to speak), the W3C also provides a set of“profiles” that specify which versions of which specificationsare being used. Additionally, a number of specializedspecifications are under development, such as for handlingconsiderations for security and transactions.There are several ways in which Web services can beaccessed:• Remote Procedure Call (RPC), which generally usesWSDL and follows a format similar to the traditionalway programs call upon library functions• An organization based on the available messagesrather than calls or operations (see service-orientedarchitecture)• Representational State Transfer (REST), which viewsapplications or services as collections of “resources”with specific addresses (URLs) and specific requestsusing HTTPA variety of other specifications and approaches can beused; this area is a very fluid one. Fortunately, programmersand even users (see mashups) can build new Webapplications without having to know the details of how theunderlying services work.Further ReadingCerami, Ethan. Web Services Essentials: Distributed Applicationswith XML-RPC, SOAP, UDDI & WSDL. Sebastapol, Calif.:O’Reilly, 2002.Papazoglu, Michael. Web Services: Principles and Technology. UpperSaddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2007.Richardson, Leonard, and Sam Ruby. RESTful Web Services. Sebastapol,Calif.: O’Reilly, 2007.World Wide Web Consortium. Web Services Activity. Availableonline. URL: http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/. Accessed December4, 2007.Weizenbaum, Joseph(1923– )German-AmericanComputer ScientistJoseph Weizenbaum, after writing one of the most famousprograms in the history of artificial intelligence research,eventually became one of the most persistent and cogentcritics of the AI project itself.Weizenbaum was born on January 8, 1923, in Berlinto Jewish parents. Having fled Nazi Germany with hisparents, in 1941 Weizenbaum enrolled in Wayne Universityin Detroit, Michigan. However, the following year heenlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. After thewar he resumed his study of mathematics. While workingas a research assistant, Weizenbaum had the opportunityto help design and build an early digital computer, andalthough he received his master’s degree in mathematics in1950, he would spend his career in the computer field.From 1955 to 1963 Weizenbaum worked for GeneralElectric’s Computer Development Laboratory as a systemsengineer. During this time he would oversee the design andimplementation of the first integrated computerized bankingsystem, for Bank of America.In 1963 Weizenbaum returned to academia, joining thefaculty at MIT, which had one of the nation’s foremost programsin artificial intelligence research. He contributed tothe development of the time-sharing computer system atMIT and early computer networks, but the work for whichhe would be most remembered started with his interestin getting machines to “understand” human language (seenatural language processing).In 1966 Weizenbaum and a collaborator, psychiatristKenneth Colby, created a remarkable program called Eliza(named for the character in Bernard Shaw’s play who istaught “proper English” by Professor Henry Higgins). Elizawas remarkable not for its complexity or for innovative useof AI techniques, but for the way it used a few simple proceduresto convey the impression that it was a true artificialintelligence—or indeed, a real person.Eliza worked basically by identifying key words andbasic sentence structure and then “mirroring” the user’sstatements back. A sample snippet of human-Eliza dialogmight look like this (Eliza’s words are in caps).Men are all 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?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 TOBE 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.Although the program seemed to have at best a superficialunderstanding of human language, Weizenbaum soonbecame dismayed at how readily people treated it as thoughit were a human being. (Indeed, Colby wanted to use a programlike Eliza to automate psychotherapy.)The result of these concerns was Weizenbaum’s bookComputer Power and Human Reason, a collection of essaysthat both explain the achievements of AI pioneers andpoints out their limitations. If, as Weizenbaum observes,“the computer programmer is creator of universes for whichhe alone is responsible . . . universes of almost unlimited