According to the article:

Imagine feeling overwhelmed and in need of someone to talk to, but no one is available. You have no idea what to do, who to talk to and what to say. Chatbot AI is your new best friend. Essentially, it can take over basic human interaction and problems, answering even the most absurd questions. An artificial intelligence chatbot provides support and guidance. But there are some aspects that AI can not replace, things like having a physical person in front of you. Still, you feel a bit better knowing you have some support. The 1980s were referred to as the rapid “AI boom.” Joseph Weizenbaum, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, developed the first chatbot to simulate an entertaining human conversation. He envisioned it as taking on the persona of a psychotherapist. Its original purpose was “to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve the kinds of problems now reserved for humans and improve themselves.” Ideally, a user would input a message on an electric typewriter linked to a mainframe, and shortly after, the “psychotherapist” would respond. Decades later, in 2017, chatbots finally became recognized as a stable form of communication. Because of continuous innovations in technology, chatbots have been created as a type of artificial intelligence application that poses as a sort of digital friend that you can lean on.