[Air-L] CfP: Special Issue “Celebrating 60 Years of ELIZA? Critical Pasts and Futures of AI”

[Christian Strippel]

Dear colleagues,

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of ELIZA, the chatbot introduced to the public by Joseph Weizenbaum in 1966, Magnus Rust <https://medienwissenschaft.philhist.unibas.ch/en/persons/rust-magnus/> (University of Basel) and I are editing a Special Issue for publication in the Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society (WJDS) next year. With this Special Issue, we aim to bring together interdisciplinary perspectives that examine ELIZA’s historical, technical, and societal significance, while reflecting on its legacy for current and future developments in AI.

You can find all the information about this Special Issue in the Call for Papers: https://ojs.weizenbaum-institut.de/index.php/wjds/announcement/view/8 

We would highly appreciate it if you would consider submitting suitable work and/or forwarding the Call for Papers to interested colleagues.

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
Christian (Strippel)

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Abstract
Sixty years ago, Joseph Weizenbaum introduced ELIZA, one of the first computer chat programs, which became a landmark in the early history of Artificial Intelligence. Although ELIZA relied only on simple keyword detection and predefined response templates, it sparked the so-called “ELIZA effect,” enabled the first automated chatbot exchanges on the ARPANET, and is still regarded as a precursor to today’s systems such as ChatGPT. At the same time, ELIZA marked the beginning of Weizenbaum’s critical engagement with AI research and its societal implications. On the occasion of its 60th anniversary, this Special Issue seeks to explore the historical, technical, and societal significance of ELIZA from an interdisciplinary perspective. It aims to relate this legacy to current developments in generative AI and robotics, and to ask what—if anything—there is to celebrate six decades after ELIZA.

Individual submissions to the special issue could cover, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Automating of Psychotherapy. How have psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists actually used computers and text-based programs in their work over the past few decades? What imaginaries are mobilized and produced in these applications?
Authoring AI. What genealogies follow ELIZA, not as a psychotherapist, but as an author and co-pilot in the writing of all kinds of texts? What successes and failures have been celebrated in this history of human-machine interaction?
Commercializing AI. How were “expert systems” and other commercial AI tools received by the industry? What changes did they bring it for employees and workers? What does AI mean for the future of work in factories and offices?
Anthropomorphizing of AI. What does the humanization of chatbots and other computer programs mean for our perception of AI? How does it shape our expectations of such technologies? How does it affect our image of humans?
Mythologization of AI. How have AI myths developed since the 1950s? Why are dystopian accounts of AI so particularly successful? Why do we listen to the developers of AI when it comes to critically assessing the technologies they have helped build?
Gendering of AI. How has the gendering of AI, robots, and chatbots evolved since ELIZA? What can we learn about our society from it? What impact does it have on the use and social consequences of such technologies?

Key Dates

Abstract submission deadline: November 17, 2025
Invitation of full papers: December 1, 2025
Full Paper submission deadline: April 6, 2026
Notification of acceptance and reviews available: July 6, 2026
Paper revision deadline: October 5, 2026
Issue release: November–December 2026

For inquiries about the special issue, please contact the guest editors (christian.strippel at weizenbaum-institut.de <mailto:christian.strippel at weizenbaum-institut.de>, magnus.rust at unibas.ch <mailto:magnus.rust at unibas.ch>).


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Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin (Germany)
Group Lead "Weizenbaum Panel" and "MethodsLab"
https://www.weizenbaum-institut.de/en/portrait/p/christian-strippel/
https://panel.weizenbaum-institut.de/en/
https://methodslab.weizenbaum-institut.de/


Recent Publications:

– Ethics of Data Work: Principles for Academic Data Work Requesters <https://www.weizenbaum-institut.de/media/Publikationen/Weizenbaum_Discussion_Paper/Weizenbaum_Discussion_Paper_48.pdf>
– Weizenbaum Report 2025: Political Participation in Germany <https://doi.org/10.34669/wi.wr/6.1>
– Data, archives, and tools: Introducing new publication formats on infrastructures and resources <https://doi.org/10.1007/s11616-023-00806-7>
– “The Boundaries are Blurry…”: How Comment Moderators in Germany See and Respond to Hate Comments <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2021.2017793>
– From Insult to Hate Speech: Mapping Offensive Language in German User Comments on Immigration <https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/3399>