This paper addresses the question of whether large language model-powered chatbots are capable of assertion. According to what we call the Thesis of Chatbot Assertion (TCA), chatbots are the kinds of things that can assert, and at least some of the output produced by current-generation chatbots qualifies as assertion. We provide some motivation for TCA, arguing that it ought to be taken seriously and not simply dismissed. We also review recent objections to TCA, arguing that these objections are weighty. We (...) thus confront the following dilemma: how can we do justice to both the considerations for and against TCA? We consider two influential responses to this dilemma - the first appeals to the notion of proxy-assertion; the second appeals to fictionalism - and argue that neither is satisfactory. Instead, reflecting on the ontogenesis of assertion, we argue that we need to make space for a category of proto-assertion. We then apply the category of proto-assertion to chatbots, arguing that treating chatbots as proto-assertors provides a satisfactory resolution to the dilemma of chatbot assertion. (shrink)

Machine Learning (ML) is revolutionizing the functioning of our societies and reshaping much of the economic tissue underlying them. The deep integration of ML into the fabric of our lives has changed to way we work and communicate and how we relate to each other. In this Topical Collection we reflect on the reach and impact of this AI (ML-driven) revolution in our society, critically analyzing some of the most important ethical, epistemological, scientific, and sociological issues underlying it.

1. It is through academic writings (AWs)1 that academia educates and emancipates2, making knowledge visible and analysable (Latour and Woolgar 1986; Olson 1994) and through language that rhetorical...