From the archive: Weizenbaum’s nightmares: how the inventor of the first chatbot turned against AI – podcast
TL;DR
The Guardian's long read podcast is revisiting a 2023 piece by Ben Tarnoff about computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum, who built ELIZA, one of the first chatbots. Weizenbaum was there at the dawn of artificial intelligence, yet he later became one of its sharpest critics and insisted that people must never confuse computers with humans. The episode is read by Sam Peter Jackson and comes with a new introduction from the author.
Nauti's Take
Weizenbaum's warning fits a time when many people credit chatbots with feelings or judgment, and the episode is an opportunity to reflect on how we use them. Its limit is that this is an archive piece from 2023, so it adds no new facts about current developments.
For anyone rolling out AI assistants in a team, it is a good prompt to define clear roles for people and machines.
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