is a journalist and philosopher of technology with degrees from France’s École Normale Supérieure in Lyon and HEC-Paris, where she specialised in innovation and media, before joining Philonomist’s editorial team.
Picture: © CP
IN BRIEF
The Eliza effect refers to our tendency to assimilate the behaviour of a computer with that of a human being.
WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
The Eliza effect takes its name from the chatbot Eliza, created by MIT computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum. Considered to be one of the first written conversational agents, Eliza simulated the role of a psychotherapist by asking simple questions, either by reformulating an affirmative sentence in the interrogative form (“I am depressed” – “Are you depressed?”) or by spurring its interlocutor on with “why?”. Despite its rudimentary appearance, the program triggered very strong reactions of attachment from MIT students who “conversed” with it. That the latter knew they were talking to a computer code made little difference: over the course of their interactions, albeit minimalist ones, they ended up seeing Eliza as a being capable of understanding and empathy.
Eliza’s creator himself expressed his astonishment years later, saying he didn’t realise that such brief interactions with a relatively simple program could induce delusional thoughts in normal people (cf. Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgement To Calcula…
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