Inventing ELIZA : how the first chatbot shaped the future of AI / Sarah Ciston, David M. Berry, Anthony C. Hay, Mark C. Marino, Peter Millican, Arthur I. Schwarz, Jeff Shrager, and Peggy Weil ; foreword by Janet H. Murray

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ciston, Sarah, author.

Berry, David M. (David Michael), author.

Hay, Anthony C., author.

Marino, Mark C., author.

Millican, P. J. R., author.

Schwarz, Arthur I., author.

Shrager, Jeff, author.

Weil, Peggy, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

ELIZA (Computer program).

Chatbots.

Natural language processing (Computer science).

Artificial intelligence--History.

Artificial intelligence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2026]

Summary:

"As we reach the 60th anniversary of ELIZA's public debut, Inventing ELIZA offers the first comprehensive critical analysis of Joseph Weizenbaum's groundbreaking chatbot system through the lens of critical code studies. Drawing on extensive archival research at MIT, Stanford, and UCLA, this book presents the rediscovered original source code of ELIZA alongside previously unseen scripts that had been missing for decades, revealing a far more sophisticated system than previously documented. Sarah Ciston, David Berry, Anthony Hay, Mark Marino, Peter Millican, Arthur Schwarz, Jeff Shrager, and Peggy Weil trace ELIZA's development (1965â€"1968), revealing that Weizenbaum created a chatbot within a conversational programming environment with previously unknown innovations well ahead of its time. Through close reading of both code and paratexts, the book reconstructs ELIZA's conceptual evolution and situates it within the historical context of early AI development. The book's website, https://findingeliza.org, includes a faithful recreation of the first chatbot and news about continued research"-- Cambridge Core

Contents:

Please go on : an introduction

A life in software : Joseph Weizenbaum

How ELIZA works

Development anarchy

ELIZA’s personas in scripts and dialogues

The ELIZA source code

The DOCTOR script

ELIZA-inspired bots

The blurring test : MrMind

Learning from ELIZA in philosophy and AI

Go on now : what future language models can learn from ELIZA

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (MIT Press Direct, viewed July 29, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Ciston, Sarah Inventing ELIZA

ISBN:

9780262052504

0262052504

9780262052498

0262052490

OCLC:

1603199165

Access Restriction:

Some versions: Open access versions available from some providers open access