Before computing was ubiquitous, I wrote a bare-bones ELIZA-like program. It quickly picked replies from a couple hundred sentences previously typed in ... base

Before computing was ubiquitous, I wrote a bare-bones ELIZA-like program. It quickly picked replies from a couple hundred sentences previously typed in ... based only on the number of words in common with what a user typed (or at random for no matches). I then asked visitors to try out this 'computer chat' and react to it. Many visitors were surprised at the readability, and some got upset when they perceived a slight. (Created by some prior user.) Explaining what was actually going on didn't always molify them.