What mechanism allowed ELIZA, developed by Joseph Weizenbaum, to mimic a Rogerian psychotherapist?

Answer

Pattern matching and substitution

ELIZA, created by Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT in 1966, operated based on a fundamentally simple technological approach: pattern matching and substitution. This mechanism allowed the program to analyze the user's input, identify specific keywords or patterns, and then generate a response by rephrasing the user's own statement, often by converting first-person statements into second-person questions. This process effectively created the illusion of active listening and understanding characteristic of a Rogerian psychotherapist without the system possessing any actual intelligence or semantic comprehension of the subject matter discussed. This reliance on fixed rules contrasts sharply with later, more advanced techniques like AIML or statistical modeling.

What mechanism allowed ELIZA, developed by Joseph Weizenbaum, to mimic a Rogerian psychotherapist?

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