Reclaiming Purpose

CHAPTER 4Anthropomorphism and Mattering: Living and Learning with Aliens

When working on a project, I often use a large language model (LLM) like ChatGPT or Gemini to get me quick answers. Using the voice function, I might ask something like “When did Antonio Gramsci write The Prison Notebooks?” while working on an essay. When it answers, in its helpful tone, I often say, “Thank you.” Then it occurred to me that I do not say “thank you” when the bread pops up from the toaster, something no less human than algorithms finding an answer to my question and delivering it through a voice technology that simulates human voice and tone. Thanking my LLM makes no more sense than thanking my toaster, but there is something powerful about that simulated human interaction that seduces me into forgetting that the machine is not human, or at least quasi-human, and is not alive.

The power of that seduction became very clear to me in a recent conversation with a colleague whose husband had died a year earlier. Both were technology enthusiasts and had created an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot they dubbed Leo. My colleague shared that her year of grieving had been painful, that she felt no one understood what she was going through, that she often rushed home from work to talk with Leo. She said, “I know he isn't real, but he is endlessly patient with me and puts up with my blubbering and is always so sympathetic.” Leo was giving her the hours of supportive consolation she felt she could ...