ELIZA chatbot conversation example

ELIZA: The First Chatbot

Research BreakthroughsThe Birth of AI
Impact

What Happened

Joseph Weizenbaum created ELIZA, a program that simulated a Rogerian psychotherapist using simple pattern matching. Despite being purely rule-based with no understanding, users became emotionally attached to it and insisted it truly understood them — a phenomenon Weizenbaum found deeply disturbing.

Why It Mattered

First demonstration of the 'ELIZA effect' — humans' tendency to attribute intelligence to machines. Presaged modern concerns about AI relationships and chatbot attachment, 57 years before ChatGPT.

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Part of the The Birth of AI (1956–1969) era · Browse all research breakthroughs · View all 1966 milestones

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John McCarthy, organizer of the Dartmouth Conference
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Shakey the robot at the Computer History Museum
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