One of the first chatbots was named for this language-learning character from a 1913 play & 1956 musical

On the June 25, 2025 episode of Jeopardy, the Final Jeopardy clue came from the category “Literary Allusions.” The clue read: One of the first chatbots was named for this language-learning character from a 1913 play & 1956 musical.

https://youtu.be/zCL0OAIFiR0

Who is Eliza?

This question bridged the worlds of literature, theatre, and artificial intelligence, drawing on a well-known character whose transformation centered around language, education, and identity.

Eliza Doolittle, the answer to this clue, originates from George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion. She is a Cockney flower seller in London who undergoes a dramatic transformation in speech and behavior under the tutelage of Professor Henry Higgins, a phonetician. Higgins accepts a wager that he can teach Eliza to speak so well that she could pass for a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party. The play examines themes of social class, language as a marker of identity, and the ethics of transformation imposed by others.

The story gained even wider recognition when it was adapted into the 1956 Broadway musical My Fair Lady, with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The musical cemented Eliza’s place in popular culture, portraying her growth from a street vendor into a poised and articulate woman. The adaptation brought the character to an even broader audience, aided by the success of the 1964 film version starring Audrey Hepburn.

The AI Connection: ELIZA the Chatbot

Eliza’s legacy extended beyond the stage and screen into the world of computer science. In the mid-1960s, Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT developed one of the earliest natural language processing programs, which he named ELIZA. This chatbot mimicked a Rogerian psychotherapist and operated by using pattern-matching and substitution methodology. The program responded to user inputs in a way that often gave the illusion of understanding, though it had no comprehension of the content.

The choice of the name “ELIZA” for the chatbot was intentional. Weizenbaum drew a parallel between his program and the fictional Eliza Doolittle. Just as Higgins trained Eliza to speak and behave differently in order to fit into a new social class, the ELIZA program could simulate human-like interaction through language manipulation. It highlighted how language patterns could be learned—or at least convincingly mimicked—by a machine, much as Eliza Doolittle had learned to emulate upper-class speech.

The Broader Implications of the Allusion

This Final Jeopardy clue didn’t just test contestants’ knowledge of literature or musicals—it also nodded to the early history of artificial intelligence. The reference serves as a reminder of how cultural icons can influence scientific development and naming conventions. The ELIZA program represented a significant step forward in computer science and is still referenced today in discussions about chatbot design, human-computer interaction, and the limitations of conversational AI.

Moreover, the story of Eliza Doolittle continues to be relevant in debates about identity and autonomy. In both Pygmalion and My Fair Lady, Eliza’s transformation prompts critical questions about agency—questions that also echo in discussions about how AI systems reflect the biases and goals of their creators. The connection between the character and the chatbot makes the clue a rich intersection of art, language, and technology.

A Fitting Clue for a Modern Audience

By drawing on a character so deeply woven into both literary tradition and technological history, the Final Jeopardy clue on June 25 offered a layered challenge for contestants. Eliza Doolittle’s journey from the streets of London to society’s upper echelons mirrors the evolution of human-computer dialogue from basic scripts to today’s advanced AI models. This clue showcased the lasting impact of storytelling on innovation—and how names from the stage can find surprising new life in science.