The social behavior of Chat-GPT is very similar to that of humans. But there are interesting differences, as new research shows. They raise the question of whether AI can develop something like its own personality.
By Christian J. Meier
Eliza captivated people. The first chatbot in history tempted them to reveal their most intimate secrets. When Joseph Weizenbaum, who programmed Eliza at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston in the late 1960s, looked over his secretary’s shoulder while chatting with the bot, she asked him to leave the room. The anecdote shows that people perceived computer programs as social counterparts over 50 years ago.