‘Searching for SmarterChild’ Kickstarter

Documentary filmmakers Lindsey Sitz and Zan Gillies are seeking funding on Kickstarter for 'Searching for SmarterChild,' a film about the AOL Instant Messenger chatbot that once had 30 million users. The campaign has one week remaining and is short of its primary goal.

After my reading my posts earlier today https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/07/08/ about ELIZA, the first “hit” chatbot from the 1960s, DF reader AP sent me a link to the Kickstarter page for Searching for SmarterChild , a project from documentary filmmakers Lindsey Sitz and Zan Gillies to make a movie about SmarterChild, an AOL Instant Messenger chatbot that once had 30 million “friends” a.k.a. users . I don’t recall ever hearing of SmarterChild before, let alone using it. I think I was on a very different level of the Internet back then. But this looks like a great indie nerd documentary. The Kickstarter campaign has just one week left and they’re a wee bit short of their primary goal, and quite a bit short of their stretch goals. I just chipped in. Maybe you should too.