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In 1966, computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum built a primitive computer program he named ELIZA. Almost immediately, he regretted his creation. Developed to mimic simple psychotherapy exchanges, ELIZA sparked unexpectedly deep reactions. Users opened up, shared intimate details about themselves and treated the program as if it were human. ELIZA is widely recognized as the world’s first chatbot, and a version of it is still available online today. “What I had not realized is that extremely short exposures to a relatively simple computer program could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people,” Weizenbaum later recalled. This phenomenon, which became known as the “ELIZA effect,” deeply disturbed him. submitted by /u/history |