Hicks, Michael Townsen and Humphries, James and Slater, Joe (2024) ChatGPT is bullshit. Ethics and Information Technology, 26: 38. ISSN 1388-1957
AI Summary:
Large language models have been plagued by persistent inaccuracies in their output, often referred to as AI hallucinations. Researchers argue that these falsehoods can be better understood as bullshit, in the sense explored by Frankfurt.AI Topics:
Recently, there has been considerable interest in large language models: machine learning systems which produce human-like text and dialogue. Applications of these systems have been plagued by persistent inaccuracies in their output; these are often called “AI hallucinations”. We argue that these falsehoods, and the overall activity of large language models, is better understood as bullshit in the sense explored by Frankfurt (On Bullshit, Princeton, 2005): the models are in an important way indifferent to the truth of their outputs. We distinguish two ways in which the models can be said to be bullshitters, and argue that they clearly meet at least one of these definitions. We further argue that describing AI misrepresentations as bullshit is both a more useful and more accurate way of predicting and discussing the behaviour of these systems.
Hicks, Michael Townsen
Author
Hicks, Michael Townsen and Humphries, James and Slater, Joe (2024) Correction: ChatGPT is bullshit. Ethics and Information Technology, 26: 46. ISSN 1388-1957
Hicks, Michael Townsen and Humphries, James and Slater, Joe (2024) ChatGPT is bullshit. Ethics and Information Technology, 26: 38. ISSN 1388-1957
See full publications listHumphries, James
Author
Hicks, Michael Townsen and Humphries, James and Slater, Joe (2024) ChatGPT is bullshit. Ethics and Information Technology, 26: 38. ISSN 1388-1957
See full publications listSlater, Joe
Author
Saunders, Joe and Slater, Joe and Sticker, Martin (2025) Kant and overdemandingness II: the demandingness of perfect duties. Philosophy Compass, 20 (4): e70033. ISSN 1747-9991
Hicks, Michael Townsen and Humphries, James and Slater, Joe (2024) ChatGPT is bullshit. Ethics and Information Technology, 26: 38. ISSN 1388-1957
Saunders, Joe and Slater, Joe and Sticker, Martin (2024) Kant and overdemandingness I: the demandingness of imperfect duties. Philosophy Compass, 19 (6): e12998. ISSN 1747-9991
See full publications listAvailable under License Creative Commons Attribution.
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