GoKawiilELIZAGen project applies biology's phylogenetics tools to ELIZA chatbot code history
A research effort called ELIZAGen is building a family tree of ELIZA chatbot implementations by treating them as biological specimens rather than comparing source code directly. Researchers encode 27 versions spanning 1965-2025 across eight languages using 13 binary architectural features, then analyze the resulting matrix with PAUP*, software standard in evolutionary biology. The work is detailed in a December 2025 draft paper by Jeff Shrager titled 'Reconstructing Program Genealogies from Abstract Program Descriptions: The ELIZA Case Study.'