Arts & Culture

He Built the First Chatbot—Then Spent His Life Warning the World About AI

After creating ELIZA, the first chatbot, Joseph Weizenbaum spent decades warning that artificial intelligence rests on a flawed vision of human nature.
He Built the First Chatbot—Then Spent His Life Warning the World About AI
A simulated therapy session with ELIZA, the 1960s computer program that pioneered chatbot technology—and revealed how easily humans project meaning onto machines. Public domain
Walker Larson
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User: Men are all alike.

Chatbot: In what way?

Walker Larson
Walker Larson
Author
Before becoming a freelance journalist and culture writer, Walker Larson taught literature and history at a private academy in Wisconsin, where he resides with his wife and daughter. He holds a master’s in English literature and language, and his writing has appeared in The Hemingway Review, Intellectual Takeout, and his Substack, The Hazelnut. He is also the author of two novels, “Hologram” and “Song of Spheres.”