In honor of Weizenbaum's Centenary, I asked ChatGPT to program ELIZA

When I was 13 (many decades ago), I wrote the BASIC ELIZA that many of you have probably experienced (if you are of a certain age) or (if you are not ...) you've almost certainly experienced a knock-off of mine.

Today, Jan 8th, is the 100th centenary of Joseph Weizenbaum's birth, so I asked ChatGPT to write ELIZA in js.

Long dialog (~10 rounds) short, here's where it ended up:

''' // A list of ELIZA's responses const responses = { "I feel": [ "Why do you feel {0}?", "What do you think is causing you to feel {0}?", "Do you often feel {0}?", "How do you normally deal with feeling {0}?" ], "I want": [ "Why do you want {0}?", "What led you to want this?", "Do you often find yourself wanting {0}?", "How do you think getting what you want will make you feel?" ], "I need": [ "Why do you feel like you need {0}?", "What led you to feel like you need this?", "Do you often find yourself feeling like you need {0}?", "How do you think getting what you need will make you feel?" ] };

// A list of keywords const keywords = Object.keys(responses);

// A function that generates a response function generateResponse(input) { // Check if the input contains any of the keywords for (let i = 0; i < keywords.length; i++) { if (input.includes(keywords[i])) { // If the input contains a keyword, return a random response // that includes the remainder of the input, with personal // pronouns conjugated correctly const response = responses[keywords[i]][Math.floor(Math.random() * responses[keywords[i]].length)]; return response.replace("{0}", input.substring(keywords[i].length + 1)); } } }

// Test the function console.log(generateResponse("I feel sad")); console.log(generateResponse("I want a new car")); console.log(generateResponse("I need some help"));

My conclusion: It's not yet up to being a 1970s 13 year old programmer....yet. :-)

---- (Apparently ''' ... ''' doesn't do code in HN. Sorry for the wrap-around formatting.)