People began confiding in the first chatbot as if it understood them, and refused to believe otherwise – even once the trick was fully explained to them.

A structured breathing exercise doesn’t care what time it is. Neither does an app trying to walk you through one at eleven at night, when the clinic’s long since closed.

People have always talked to things that couldn’t talk back – a diary, a dog, an empty room. What’s new is something that actually answers, and can follow an argument back.