Before Alexa and Siri, there was ELIZA. The first chatbot ever was the creation of a man named Joseph Weizenbaum, who built the bot almost as a magic trick — and then couldn't believe how many people fell for it. David Berry and Mark Marino, two members of a team dedicated to restoring and understanding ELIZA, explain how Weizenbaum created the virtual conversant, why he came to regret it, and what ELIZA can teach us about life in the AI age.
Further reading:
Why your Amazon order confirmation emails have become so unhelpful
David Ellison’s ready to pull Paramount out of California
What to expect from Google’s 2026 Pixel hardware launch event
The ELIZA Archaeology Project
Inventing ELIZA: How the First Chatbot Shaped the Future of AI
From Eliza to ChatGPT: the 60-year history of chatbots
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