Why People Confide in ChatGPT — ELIZA Predicted It in the 1960s

In the 1960s, MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum built a chatbot called ELIZA that mimicked a therapist's responses. Users quickly began confiding deeply personal secrets in it, treating it as a genuine confidant despite knowing it was a program. That same dynamic now drives people to share intimate thoughts with modern chatbots like ChatGPT.