{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,21]],"date-time":"2026-05-21T12:16:42Z","timestamp":1779365802388,"version":"3.53.0"},"reference-count":79,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,10,15]],"date-time":"2018-10-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1539561600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["New Media &amp; Society"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Software is usually studied in terms of the changes triggered by its operations in the material world. Yet to understand its social and cultural impact, one needs to examine also the different narratives that circulate about it. Software\u2019s opacity, in fact, makes it prone to being translated into a plurality of narratives that help people make sense of its functioning and presence. Drawing from the case of Joseph Weizenbaum\u2019s ELIZA, widely considered the first chatbot ever created, this article proposes a theoretical framework based on the concept of \u2018biographies of media\u2019 to illuminate the dynamics and implications of software\u2019s discursive life. The case of ELIZA is particularly relevant in this regard because it became the centre of competing narratives, whose trajectories transcended the actual functioning of this programme and shaped key controversies about the implications of computing and artificial intelligence.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444818804980","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,10,15]],"date-time":"2018-10-15T08:28:16Z","timestamp":1539592096000},"page":"712-728","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":93,"title":["If software is narrative: Joseph Weizenbaum, artificial intelligence and the biographies of ELIZA"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1962-2398","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Simone","family":"Natale","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Loughborough University, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,10,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-1461444818804980","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444815586984"},{"key":"bibr2-1461444818804980","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/9781444310061"},{"key":"bibr3-1461444818804980","volume-title":"Mind as Machine: A History of Cognitive Science","author":"Boden M","year":"2006"},{"key":"bibr4-1461444818804980","volume-title":"AI: Its Nature and Future","author":"Boden M","year":"2016"},{"issue":"6","key":"bibr5-1461444818804980","first-page":"66","volume":"4","author":"Bory S","year":"2016","journal-title":"Im@go: A Journal of the Social Imaginary"},{"key":"bibr6-1461444818804980","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/014396899100271"},{"key":"bibr7-1461444818804980","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7551\/mitpress\/9384.001.0001"},{"key":"bibr8-1461444818804980","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/1369118X.2016.1154086"},{"key":"bibr9-1461444818804980","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/2053951715622512"},{"key":"bibr10-1461444818804980","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-137-10740-4"},{"key":"bibr11-1461444818804980","volume-title":"The Hero with a Thousand Faces","author":"Campbell J","year":"2004"},{"key":"bibr12-1461444818804980","volume-title":"Relating Narratives: Storytelling and Selfhood","author":"Cavarero A","year":"2000"},{"key":"bibr13-1461444818804980","volume-title":"The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us about What It Means to Be Alive","author":"Christian B","year":"2011"},{"key":"bibr14-1461444818804980","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7551\/mitpress\/9780262015424.001.0001"},{"key":"bibr15-1461444818804980","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1097\/00005053-196602000-00005"},{"key":"bibr16-1461444818804980","first-page":"467","volume":"5","author":"Crawford S","year":"2007","journal-title":"Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law"},{"key":"bibr17-1461444818804980","volume-title":"AI: The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial Intelligence","author":"Crevier D","year":"1993"},{"key":"bibr18-1461444818804980","author":"Davy J","year":"1982","journal-title":"The Observer"},{"key":"bibr19-1461444818804980","author":"Dembert L","year":"1977","journal-title":"The New York Times"},{"key":"bibr20-1461444818804980","volume-title":"What Computers Can\u2019t Do: A Critique of Artificial Reason","author":"Dreyfus HL","year":"1972"},{"key":"bibr21-1461444818804980","volume-title":"Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History since 1900","author":"Edgerton D","year":"2007"},{"key":"bibr22-1461444818804980","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511802126"},{"key":"bibr23-1461444818804980","volume-title":"The Internet Imaginaire","author":"Flichy P","year":"2007"},{"key":"bibr24-1461444818804980","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/267658.267684"},{"key":"bibr25-1461444818804980","first-page":"18","volume-title":"Biographical passages: Essays in Victorian and Modernist biography","author":"Furbank PN","year":"2000"},{"key":"bibr26-1461444818804980","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1075\/is.9.3.03geo"},{"key":"bibr27-1461444818804980","unstructured":"Google\u2019s AI and assistant can now make real phone calls (2018) Available at: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JvbHu_bVa_g&time_continue=1&app=desktop"},{"key":"bibr28-1461444818804980","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1037\/0022-3514.79.5.701"},{"key":"bibr29-1461444818804980","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7551\/mitpress\/8975.001.0001"},{"key":"bibr30-1461444818804980","unstructured":"King W (1995) Anthropomorphic agents: friend, foe, or folly. 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