UI professor is conversant in many dialects including computer

Check your bank balance, make an airline reservation, call for help with Windows – you talk to computers on the telephone all the time. But try holding a conversation, even a limited-scope business conversation. You'd be better off chatting up a preschooler.

"We have no technology in existence that's capable of carrying on a decent cocktail party conversation," University of Illinois Professor Richard Blahut said recently.

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