Inventing ELIZA: an exploration of the first chatbot
Proposal Type
Panel
Location
Algorithms & Imaginaries
Start Date
July 2026
End Date
July 2026
Abstract
This panel will discuss the 5-year project of exploring the original source code of Joseph Weizenbaum's ELIZA, which led to the writing of Inventing ELIZA: How the First Chatbot Shaped the Future of AI (MIT 2026). The book explores how the original ELIZA chatbot transformed ideas about AI and society’s response to them.
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 (1965–1968), 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 project included resuscitating the original ELIZA code, tracing its lineage, and exploring the Weizenbaum archives.
During the panel, the authors will discuss their exploration of ELIZA through its code with special emphasis on its relevance to electronic literature.
Inventing ELIZA: an exploration of the first chatbot
Algorithms & Imaginaries
This panel will discuss the 5-year project of exploring the original source code of Joseph Weizenbaum's ELIZA, which led to the writing of Inventing ELIZA: How the First Chatbot Shaped the Future of AI (MIT 2026). The book explores how the original ELIZA chatbot transformed ideas about AI and society’s response to them.
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 (1965–1968), 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 project included resuscitating the original ELIZA code, tracing its lineage, and exploring the Weizenbaum archives.
During the panel, the authors will discuss their exploration of ELIZA through its code with special emphasis on its relevance to electronic literature.
Bio
The authors, “Team ELIZA”, represent decades of expertise in computer science, digital humanities, philosophy, cognitive science, and creative computing and the arts. They include the creator of ladymouth, a feminist chatbot, the founders of the Critical Code Studies discipline, the author of “The Philosophy of Software,” the developer of the BASIC version of ELIZA in the 1970s, the director of the USC Humanities Lab, the developer of GNU SLIP, an Imperial College–trained computer scientist, and the creator of MrMind/The Blurring Test.