Research Seminar - Structured Like a Language Model: Analysing AI as an Automated Subject
Structured Like a Language Model: Analysing AI as an Automated Subject
Presented by: Dr Luke Munn
Date: Monday 24 April
Time: 12-1pm
Location: Online via Zoom and in-person at the SCA Writer's Studio (Level 6, Michie Building)
Abstract
The rapid rise of AI language models has drawn various responses, from claims of sentience to dismissals of them as machinic parrots. While acknowledging their limits as technical systems, interacting with them feels like interacting with a subject. For this reason, we turn to a field deeply invested in subjectivity and language: psychoanalysis. We carry out a case study of InstructGPT, detailing its construction and conducting exploratory interviews with chatbots. These investigations draw out how the model is like and unlike human subjects, including short term memory loss, self/object confusion, and competing logics of being helpful, truthful, and not harmful. We conclude that critical media methods and psychoanalytic theory together offer a productive frame for grasping the powerful new capacities of AI-driven language systems.
Presenter
Luke Munn is a Research Fellow in Digital Cultures & Societies at the University of Queensland. His wide-ranging work investigates the sociocultural impacts of digital cultures, from data infrastructures in Asia to platform labor and far-right radicalisation, and has been featured in highly regarded journals such as Cultural Politics, Big Data & Society, and New Media & Society as well as popular forums like the Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post. He has written six books: Unmaking the Algorithm (2018), Logic of Feeling (2020), Automation is a Myth (2022), Countering the Cloud (2022), Red Pilled (2023) and Technical Territories (2023 forthcoming). His work combines diverse digital methods with critical analysis that draws on media, race, and cultural studies.
About Research Seminar and Workshop Series
School of Communication and Arts Research Seminar Series
The research seminar and workshop series occur each semester, each with a different topic and guest speaker from UQ or otherwise.
Friday, 4 August Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the | After the Future: Heat, Collapse, and Exhausting the “Future of Work” | Dr Luke Munn |
Friday, 25 August Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the | Promoting children’s environmental responsibility in the EFL classroom | Dr Valentina Adami |
Friday, 1 September Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the | Portraying Asian-diasporic identity beyond the limits of the literary label Asian-Australian | Catriona Arthy and Olivia De Zilva |
Friday, 8 September Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the | Exploring Digital Humanities through the Lens of Journalism: A Case Study of Reader Comment Analysis | Dr Lujain Shafeeq |
Friday, 15 September Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the | Carly-Jay Metcalfe and Bianca Millroy | |
Friday, 22 September Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the | Coping with eco-anxiety: A guided journal trial | Dr Ans Vercammen and Dr Skye Doherty |