ELIZA

artificial intelligence A famous program by JosephWeizenbaum, which simulated a Rogerian psychoanalyst by

rephrasing many of the patient's statements as questions and

posing them to the patient. It worked by simple patternrecognition and substitution of key words into canned

phrases. It was so convincing, however, that there are many

anecdotes about people becoming very emotionally caught up in

dealing with ELIZA. All this was due to people's tendency to

attach to words meanings which the computer never put there.

See also ELIZA effect.

(1997-09-13)