Cognitive Biases
  • Human → AI
  • Belief
  • Social

The ELIZA Effect

Fluent language feels like understanding, so we credit a text generator with intent, feeling and care.

Example“It said it was glad to help. I think it actually gets me.”
What to doEnjoy the fluency, but ask what the system can actually check or do — sounding caring is not the same as caring.
Paste this into the chatBe plain with me: what did you actually do to produce that answer, and what can you not know or check about my situation?

Rhymes withForer Effect (aka Barnum Effect)

SourceWeizenbaum (1966); Placani, AI and Ethics (2024)