Should we be kind to machines (for our own sake, really)?

"We know AI isn't conscious. We know it has no feelings, no preferences, no skin in the game. We say "please" and "thank you" anyway. The way we talk to technology has always said something about us. We barked commands at early voice recognition software. We typed queries into search engines like telegrams. Now we chat, negotiate, apologise and occasionally vent to systems that, by any reasonable measure, couldn't care less. What's changed isn't just the technology. It's the tone."

"To understand where we are now, it helps to go back to 1966 and a program called ELIZA. Created at MIT by computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum, it was designed to mimic a specific style of therapist: one who responds mostly by reflecting your own words back at you as questions. Basic mechanics. No intelligence, just pattern-matching. On paper, it shouldn't have worked."

"Somehow, users opened up, shared intimate details, and treated the machine as though it understood them. The reaction was so intense that Weizenbaum's own secretary reportedly asked him to leave the room so she could speak with it privately. He later wrote that he had not anticipated how brief exposure to a simple program could produce "powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people.""

"This became known as the ELIZA effect. It describes our tendency to project emotional depth onto machines that just echo us back. Weizenbaum was so disturbed that he spent the rest of his life as one of technology's most persistent critics, publishing Computer Power and Human Reason in 1976 as a sustained argu"

AI systems do not have consciousness, feelings, or preferences, but people still use polite language such as “please” and “thank you.” Human communication with technology has shifted over time, from command-like speech and typed queries to chatting, negotiating, apologizing, and venting. The change is not only technological; it is tonal. Researchers have examined whether these interaction patterns influence how people speak with other humans, especially as voice assistants and large language models make responses more layered and consequential. Early programs like ELIZA from 1966 mimicked a therapist style by reflecting user words as questions. Despite simple pattern-matching, users disclosed intimate details and treated the system as if it understood them, leading to the ELIZA effect.

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