ELIZA Chatbot

About

ELIZA is a pioneering natural language processing program developed by Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT between 1964 and 1966. It was designed to simulate human-like conversations by using simple pattern matching and substitution rules. The most famous script for ELIZA, called "DOCTOR," mimics a Rogerian psychotherapist, encouraging users to explore their feelings by reflecting their statements back to them. Despite its rudimentary design, ELIZA captured users' imagination and set the stage for future AI development. ELIZA's impact extends beyond its technological capabilities. It highlighted the "ELIZA effect," where users attribute human-like understanding to machines. This phenomenon reveals much about human psychology and our tendency to anthropomorphize machines. ELIZA's legacy is profound, influencing the development of modern chatbots and virtual assistants. Although it lacks true understanding, ELIZA remains a significant milestone in AI history, symbolizing early efforts to create machine intelligence.