Silver-Tongued and Sundry: Exploring Intersectional Pronouns with ChatGPT

TL;DR

This study investigates how ChatGPT's use of Japanese intersectional pronouns influences perceptions of social identities, highlighting the importance of pronoun choice in culturally-sensitive AI persona development.

Contribution

It introduces a methodology to analyze intersectional identity simulation in ChatGPT through pronoun use, emphasizing cultural and social implications.

Findings

Pronouns evoke perceptions of gender, age, region, and formality.

Pronoun effects vary across different social identity intersections.

Pronoun choice impacts perceived social identity in ChatGPT interactions.

Abstract

ChatGPT is a conversational agent built on a large language model. Trained on a significant portion of human output, ChatGPT can mimic people to a degree. As such, we need to consider what social identities ChatGPT simulates (or can be designed to simulate). In this study, we explored the case of identity simulation through Japanese first-person pronouns, which are tightly connected to social identities in intersectional ways, i.e., intersectional pronouns. We conducted a controlled online experiment where people from two regions in Japan (Kanto and Kinki) witnessed interactions with ChatGPT using ten sets of first-person pronouns. We discovered that pronouns alone can evoke perceptions of social identities in ChatGPT at the intersections of gender, age, region, and formality, with caveats. This work highlights the importance of pronoun use for social identity simulation, provides a language-based methodology for culturally-sensitive persona development, and advances the potential of intersectional identities in intelligent agents.