Eliza

Eliza is a visual novel about an AI counseling program, the people who develop it and the people who use it. You follow Evelyn Ishino-Aubrey as she reconnects with people from her past, meets Seattle residents who use Eliza for counseling and decides what to do with her future.

Evelyn and Eliza

After leaving her high-powered technology career and disappearing for three years, Evelyn returns as a proxy for Eliza, a virtual counseling app. During counseling sessions, she reads a script supplied in real time by an AI and has no control over what she says. As she gets to know Eliza’s clients and the employees of Skandha, the technology company behind the app, she faces opposing views about whether AI counseling expands access to therapy or is an ineffective replacement that gives technology companies another way to control people’s lives. She also questions her past and her future purpose, and must confront the turmoil and darkness within herself.

People and performances

The story takes place in present-day Seattle, brought to life with hand-painted art. You meet Eliza’s clients and Skandha employees through more than a dozen fully voiced characters.

Music and solitaire

An ambient original score accompanies the story. Between counseling sessions, you can play Kabufuda Solitaire, a solitaire variant using Japanese kabufuda cards.