𝘃𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻

This was the very first AI chatbot. In 1966, MIT computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum created ELIZA, its a program that let people have conversations with a computer. The weirdest part? ELIZA never actually understand ppl back then. It looked for keywords in what you typed, matched them to rules, and turned them into responses. Its most famous script, DOCTOR, was designed to imitate a Rogerian therapist by reflecting your words back as questions. You could say: ''I feel gay'' And ELIZA might respond with: ''Why do you feel gay?'' ye its that simple. however people started treating it like it genuinely understood them. Some even shared deeply personal things with it. weizenbaum was surprised by how quickly people attributed understanding and empathy to a program that was essentially matching patterns. this became known as the ELIZA effect, our tendency to perceive intelligence or understanding in something that communicates convincingly. And thats the part I really find fascinating. the tek changed dramatically over the next 60 years. but our instinct to talk to machines like they're human? that actually started a long frking time ago. And we're still figuring out what that says about us now.