WEIZENBAUM, Joseph

San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1976. First edition (full number line on copyright page). xii, 300pp; index. Gray cloth; silver titles; dust jacket. Mild rubbing to board tips, else fine in a lightly rubbed jacket. A sharp first edition of this important work of scientific ethics by German-American computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum (1923-2008), a key figure in the history of artificial intelligence. In 1966, Weizenbaum created the natural language processing system known as ELIZA, which utilized pattern-matching rules to generate replies, making it in essence the first chatbot—a direct predecessor to the AI technology of today. Here Weizenbaum gives voice to his increasing concerns about the blind optimism he saw, from colleagues and lay-people alike, regarding AI's potential to mimic the functioning of the human brain. The very concept of "artificial intelligence," he argues, insofar as it raises machines to the status of human beings, represents a form of technological