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that computers were capable of doing things previously only thought of as strictly human capabilities. Weizenbaum was skeptical of this worry and believed that Artificial intelligence would never equate to human decision-making and free will. This is where the Turing Test comes in. The Turing Test consists of determining whether or not a machine is convincing enough to trick a human into thinking it is a machine. During this test, a human communicates with a human and a machine; if the he/she is not able to distinguish the two, the machine passes the test. For many people, ELIZA certainly passed the Turing test; Weizenbaum began to realize that many ELIZA users were opening their hearts to the program, as if it were a human therapist. This troubled Weizenbaum, which caused him to deeply reconsider the philosophical implications of AI. This worry inspired him to write a book entitled Computer Power and Human Reason, which outlined emphasized his belief that AI should never be in charge of making important decisions.[5]

In addition to his worries about AI as a whole, Weizenbaum frequently spoke of the dangers of allowing the military to have open access to potentially destructive technology. He was a huge advocate of utilizing breakthroughs in technology as a means to support humanitarian efforts, not war. “It cannot go on without us! Without us the arms race, especially the qualitative arms race, could not advance another step” Weizenbaum once wrote in a 1986 article, addressing scientists involved in the creation of war-driven technology.[6] During the Vietnam War, he partook in protests at MIT against further research of weapons taking place there.[7] Much of the research conducted at MIT contributed to the creation of weapons used in the war, and Weizenbaum believed that scientists had a moral responsibility to prevent this from happening.

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Weizenbaum will be solidified in history as one of the fathers of Artificial Intelligence due to his contributions to the field. ELIZA is still one of the fundamental backbones of modern computing technology. According to Chatbots Magazine, there is a long running joke among programmers that states “no computing platform is complete until someone implements ELIZA on it”.[8] This fundamental building block of programming has inspired numerous language-recognition/chatbot technologies. One example is the infamous Siri of the iPhone, which actually includes ELIZA in some of her phrases. When asked “who is ELIZA?”, Siri will respond with “ELIZA is my good friend. She was a brilliant psychiatrist, but she’s retired now.” This is just one of many of Weizenbaum’s creations that has penetrated almost 70 years to some of the most used pieces of modern technology, demonstrating the tremendous impact this man has had on modern world.