Are conversational large language models speakers?

Piwek, Paul (2024). Are conversational large language models speakers? In: Proceedings of the 28th Workshop on the Semantics and Pragmatics of Dialogue - Poster Abstracts (Bernardi, Raffaella; Breitholtz, Ellen and Riccardi, Guiseppe eds.), SemDial, SemDial, Trento, Italy, (Early access).

URL: https://www.semdial.org/anthology/Z24-Piwek_semdia...

Abstract

This paper examines the question whether conversational large language models (LLMs) are speakers. As a starting point it considers the Gricean notion of speaker meaning and from there argues for a notion of speakers that centers the social practices or Wittgensteinain language games in which utterances are produced. It examines the prospects for understanding conversational LLM with reference to a language game of giving and asking for reasons and concludes with both a concern, "the chatbot conceit", and a challenge, i.e. the challenge for pragmatics researchers to gain a fundamental understanding of what it means to be a speaker.

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