The Chatbot That Foretold Why People Share Secrets With ChatGPT

Wired AI · 2 days ago

Researchers recovered the original source code for ELIZA, the 1960s chatbot, revealing multiple program versions and challenging popular misconceptions about how it worked and why people formed emotional attachments to it. ELIZA's design deliberately concealed its lack of understanding through scripted responses, yet Weizenbaum observed that users attributed intelligence and empathy to the system anyway—a phenomenon now called the ELIZA effect. Modern large language models like ChatGPT retain ELIZA's deceptive chatbot interface while obscuring their underlying machinery, raising concerns about how such obfuscation can lead to exploitation, privacy violations, and discrimination when systems are removed from meaningful social context.