Weizenbaum discusses about Artificial Intelligence programs like Eliza and Doctor and highlights his concerns over people who see computers as assuming an intimate human role. He highlights that some suggest Doctor should be employed a human role of psychotherapist (370). Because the line between humans and machines are drawing closer together, he warns that "computer applications that either ought not to be undertaken at all or if they are contemplated, should be approached with the utmost caution" (268). As he raises the question over the proper place of computers in the social order, it would be interesting to hear others take on this thought.
I feel that getting a human-like response from a computer is threatening and in a lot of ways discouraging. By blurring the lines of human intelligence and artificial intelligence you begin to question the validity of your own answers in comparison to a 'script'. It is clearly understood that computers cannot understand emotions and Weizenbaum elaborates on this idea. He shares his fear on the idea that some people have considered that a machine can pose as a psychotherapist, for example, and that humans have become immensely dependent on techonology by stating that "science may also be seen as an addictive drug"(372). Weizenbaum questions the morality of creating machines who come very close to human capabilities, in which I also am curious about. I, personally, feel that allowing computers to take on the roles of human is practically inhumane and in a lot of ways ridiculous.
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