A linguistic anthropologist explains how humans are like ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a hot topic at my university, where faculty members are deeply concerned about academic integrity, while administrators urge us to “embrace the benefits” of this “new frontier.” It’s a classic example of what my colleague Punya Mishra calls the “doom-hype cycle” around new technologies. Likewise, media coverage of human-AI interaction — whether paranoid or starry-eyed — tends to emphasise its newness. In one sense, it is undeniably new. Interactions with ChatGPT can feel unprecedented, as when a tech …

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