“Girls! Too much sugar!” This was a common refrain from my grandmother during Canasta games in which my sister and I would get sillier and sillier as the game wore on. …

Of all the questions I get asked about conversation design, “how do I become a conversation designer?” is the most common. There is no simple formula, unfortunately. I know conversation designers who used to be linguistics professors, professional musicians, stand-up comics, and electrical engineers. There’s no one path. That being…

I’ve seen many articles and blog posts on how to start a podcast, how to run a podcast, and how to host (there’s even a podcast ABOUT starting a podcast), but I rarely see advice on how to be a good podcast GUEST. Here are some tips on making the…

Originally published at scifiinterfaces.com. In 8th grade, I went on our class trip to Washington D.C. The hotel we were staying at had kids from all over the country, and one night they held a dance. …

In Part 1, I introduced the chatbot I programmed when I was 12, on my Commodore 64. It includes a video demo of the chatbot in action. This post is all about the technical side of things: how the program worked, and how I was able to run it, 35…

Think chatbots are pretty new? Let’s hop in a time machine and go back…way back…to 1984. I had just turned twelve when I decided to write my first chatbot. …

Academic probation. I read the letter with a mixture of anger and disbelief. How could I, always such a good student, be getting such a notice? I had just completed the first year of my master’s program in computer science at Indiana University. It had been a challenging time. I…

I recently attended an artificial intelligence retreat in Norway. Why Norway? Well, for one thing, Norway is breathtakingly beautiful, so why not? But also, because we stayed at the Juvet Landscape Hotel, where many of the scenes from the movie Ex Machina were filmed. Ex Machina is an interesting but…

I’ve always been a person of “what ifs”. What if the cat gets sick right before we leave on our big trip? What if I get on the wrong bus? What if I sign up to do something but I don’t know how to do it? In 2014, I decided…