12 Facts About Joseph Weizenbaum

Joseph Weizenbaum was a German American computer scientist and a professor at MIT.

Joseph Weizenbaum started studying mathematics in 1941 at Wayne State University, in Detroit, Michigan.

Around 1952, as a research assistant at Wayne, Joseph Weizenbaum worked on analog computers and helped create a digital computer.

Joseph Weizenbaum published a short paper in Datamation in 1962 entitled "How to Make a Computer Appear Intelligent" that described the strategy used in a Gomoku program that could beat novice players.

Joseph Weizenbaum modeled its conversational style after Carl Rogers, who introduced the use of open-ended questions to encourage patients to communicate more effectively with therapists.

Joseph Weizenbaum was shocked that his program was taken seriously by many users, who would open their hearts to it.

Joseph Weizenbaum started to think philosophically about the implications of artificial intelligence and later became one of its leading critics.

Joseph Weizenbaum's belief was that the computer, at its most base level, is a fundamentally conservative force and that despite being a technological innovation, it would end up hindering social progress.

Joseph Weizenbaum used his experience working with Bank of America as justification for his reasoning, saying that the computer allowed banks to deal with an ever-expanding number of checks in play that otherwise would have forced drastic changes to banking organization such as decentralization.

Joseph Weizenbaum believed that the terms "the military" and "defense" did not accurately represent the organizations and their actions.

Joseph Weizenbaum made it clear that he did not think of himself as a pacifist, believing that there are certainly times where arms are necessary, but by referring to defense as killings and bombings, humanity as a whole would be less inclined to embrace violent reactions so quickly.

In 1996, Joseph Weizenbaum moved to Berlin and lived in the vicinity of his childhood neighborhood.