Agent itself was derived from code that was first introduced in Microsoft Bob (to give you an idea of how deep this bad idea rabbit hole goes). It didn't exactly work.Ĭlippy was built on a technology called Microsoft Agent. In Microsoft's collective mind, this meant they should start putting faces and voices on their screens, so people would enjoy using their computer more. Microsoft designed this assistant feature after 'tragically misunderstanding' a Stanford University study that observed humans emotionally respond to computers the same way they respond to people.
