By Aaron Greenbaum
Publication Date: 2026-05-07 00:17:00
“It looks like you’re writing an email. Would you like help?” If you used Microsoft Office during the 90s, these words (or similar) echo in your memory. The Office Assistant, better known as Clippy, was one of Microsoft’s early attempts at creating a digital assistant. However, Clippy was doomed from the start because it was the product of misunderstood data.
While Microsoft Office 97 featured several avatars, Clippy was the default, so it attracted the most attention (and vitriol). Clippy was intended to offer advice on different tasks and help improve productivity — think Navi from “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.” The concept behind Clippy was inspired by a Stanford University study that demonstrated humans generally react to computers…
