created by Joseph Weizenbaum 1966

simulated a conversation with a psychotherapist by using pattern matching and substitution

  • was one of the first chatterbots; one of the first programs capable of attempting the Turing test
  • used pattern matching
  • Pretends to be a Rogerian psychologist

15 years before the personal computer became familiar to the general public (!!!)

Source code made Public Domain

Named after Eliza Doolittle from Shaw’s play Pygmalion

See also: Alicebot