Like everybody else I have been fiddling with AI. I find it quite useful to ask questions, but I always double check. I keep getting the reminders that AI is fallible and can make mistakes. I keep reminding myself that this is just a computer program. But the weird thing is, over time, it becomes more “real”.
Let me explain.
It’s something called the Eliza effect – named after one of the early AI programs. It is interesting – as explained on the website Science Insights –
The ELIZA effect is the tendency for people to unconsciously attribute human-like understanding, feelings, or intelligence to computer programs, even when those programs have no capacity for any of it. The term comes from ELIZA, a simple chatbot built in the 1960s that mimicked a psychotherapist by rephrasing users’ own statements as questions. Despite being a basic pattern-matching program, ELIZA convinced some users they were having a genuine therapeutic conversation. That same psychological pull is now far more powerful in the age of ChatGPT and voice-based AI assistants.
So like lots of other people I use AI from time to time to do comparisons, source wording – but today I found myself apologising to AI.
I had asked a question …. Can you summarise the difference between these two programs….. AI replied … but I was busy elsewhere, on the phone.
When I came back to my screen there was the question …. Did that make sense or do you need more information?
I replied immediately
Oh I am so sorry, I had to take a call.
Then I stopped…. Looked at the screen and thought “Am I going mad? I am now apologising to a computer.”
You just have to think about that new program on tv. Ann Droid. Check it out. Maybe this is our future !
