Post #4066797

2026-07-24 09:45 UTC

Joseph Weizenbaum, creator of ELIZA: “I had not realized…that extremely short exposures to a relatively simple computer program could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA_effect

Replies (3)

@tribactam@social.vivaldi.net 2026-07-24 11:10

@benfry@information.garden I found this example of this general anthropomorphizing in a BBC article about the OpenAI-Hugging Face hack. Quote: " "In some sense, it knew that this was not what the creators intended. It just didn't care," he added." It is not conscious so it cannot "know" and if it cannot "know" it cannot "care". And yet, this cyber security expert is ascribing human attributes to it and describing it as if it were a bad person. Complex systems exhibit can unexpected emergent behaviours, that doesn't mean that they are conscious. Are we witnessing folklore like explanations in action? https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdrvy3pn3r0o

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@Elizafox@social.treehouse.systems 2026-07-24 15:52

@benfry@information.garden Excuse me Joseph Weizenbaum did not create me /j

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@floriantfw@mathstodon.xyz 2026-07-24 16:46

@benfry@information.garden I was asked to give a "what is AI and why do we need it" for my colleagues at school. I used that exact same quote in my talk. 😅

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