Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 4: Digital Era (1960s)
1966
Joseph Weizenbaum publishes ELIZA
The early natural language processing (NLP) computer program ELIZA is published by Joseph Weizenbaum, a computer scientist and MIT professor. Named after the protagonist in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, ELIZA is a forerunner of subsequent chatbots, using pattern matching rules to engage humans in conversation. -Sasha Stiles
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
People
George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Weizenbaum, Sasha Stiles
Movements
Computer Text, Generative Poetry
Filed under
- Ideas
- Computer Text, Generative Poetry
- Technologies
- artificial intelligence, chatbots, Eliza, natural language processing
- People
- George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Weizenbaum, Sasha Stiles
- Works
- Pygmalion
- Organisations
- MIT
Echoes across time
- 2014 · Stephanie Dinkins Creates AI-Powered Chatbot
- 2000 · Ray Kurzweil’s Cybernetic Poet
- 2004 · DiNA chatbot by Lynn Hershman Leeson
Le Random editorials
- Sasha Stiles on Writing Poets, Peter Bauman, January 25, 2024
- Aaron Hertzmann on Caring about People, Peter Bauman, April 13, 2026
- Lawrence Lek on AI Reinventing Place, Peter Bauman, December 5, 2024
- Sasha Stiles and Martha Joseph on Language as Technology, Peter Bauman, September 10, 2025
Le Random podcast
- Timeline Ch 3—Analog Era (1950s) with Georg Bak — listen with transcript on Le Random (10 Aug 2023, 65 min). Transcript mentions Eliza. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- Timeline Ch 4—Digital Era Pt I (1960s) with Dr A Michael Noll — listen with transcript on Le Random (07 Sep 2023, 60 min). Chapter 4’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- Timeline Ch 4—Digital Era Pt II (1960s) with Michael Spalter — listen with transcript on Le Random (21 Sep 2023, 77 min). Chapter 4’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify