Interactional foundations for critical AI literacies
This chapter traces the sociotechnical roots of large language models' appeal, from divination and ELIZA to modern LLMs, arguing that their fluid output, overconfidence, and interactive design exploit human interpretive processes and interactional infrastructure. It positions deep understanding of human interaction as foundational for critical AI literacy.
Published 2026
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Interactional foundations for critical AI literacies
Authors/Creators
Dingemanse, Mark1
1.
Radboud University
Description
The ubiquity and ease of use of large language models makes it easy to overlook the interactional and interpretive processes at play. To understand the attraction of this technology we need to trace its sociotechnical roots. From divination and horoscopes and from ELIZA to present-day large language models, I document how people have been thinking with things, outsourcing judgement, and making sense of interactively presented non-sense. Following the lead of Lucy Suchman to “slow down discourses of the ‘smart’ machines”, I consider the interactional foundations of our engagement with technologies of language. I make the case that the fluid output, fine-tuned overconfidence, and interactive design of these computational artefacts conspire to exploit our interpretive processes and interactional infrastructure, rendering them irresistible to lay people and researchers alike. This means that a deep understanding of processes of human interaction and sense-making will be a foundational resource for the growing arsenal of methods in critical AI literacy.
Preprint of a chapter for an edited volume: A Research Agenda for Critical AI Studies. Currently under review, likely to be revised. Your comments are welcome!
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