GPT-3: an AI game-changer or an environmental disaster?

Another reason for the excitement is that humans have always been fascinated by machines that appeared to be able to respond intelligently to what we say to them. In the mid-1960s, for example, the computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum wanted to demonstrate the superficiality of human-machine interactions. So he wrote a program called Eliza that used pre-written scripts to respond to inputs. The most famous script, Doctor, simulated a Rogerian psychotherapist – ie, one who simply parroted back at patients what they'd just said. Poor Weizenbaum, a gentle and innocent soul, was then astonished to find people apparently having serious consultations with Eliza.