'Good Bot, Bad Bot': Episode I

33:45

January 18, 2023

Amory Sivertson
Ben Brock Johnson

A snapshot at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. All of the objects you see here are robots. (Ben Brock Johnson/WBUR)

Find the original episode and a full transcript here.

Bots are everywhere. They're all over social media platforms, chatrooms, phone apps. These pieces of software — which are meant to imitate human behavior and language — influence our daily lives in sneaky, surprising ways.

In the first episode of Endless Thread's series "Good Bot, Bad Bot," co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson delve into the history of ELIZA, the world's first chatbot therapist.

Why did this computer's creator have a lot of complicated feelings about the development of AI? Can AI help us cope with mental health issues?