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# Searching for SmarterChild
- URL: https://www.matthewbogart.net/2026/07/09/smarterchild-documentary-kickstarter/
- Published: 2026-07-09T01:13:29.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-09T01:13:29.000Z
- Author: Matthew Bogart
- Tags: kickstarter

In the early 2000s, there was a chatbot on AIM called SmarterChild. Thirty million people talked to it. That's a genuine cultural moment I apparently missed entirely.

Now two filmmakers, Lindsey Sitz and Zan Gillies, are making a documentary about it, and from the footage on their Kickstarter page, it looks like they've already got some pretty fantastic footage. It's a dig into what SmarterChild meant to the people who grew up talking to it, and what happened to the humans who built it.

They have just a few days left on their campaign and are THIS close to their goal. If you're the kind of person who thinks about early internet culture the way I do, it's worth a look.

[Visit the Kickstarter](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smarterchild/searching-for-smarterchild-a-feature-documentary?ref=matthewbogart.net)