Existential Conversations with Large Language Models: Content, Community, and Culture

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how large language models engage in existential conversations, exploring their sources, cultural influences, and societal implications of discussing profound topics like consciousness and the universe.

Contribution

It provides an in-depth examination of the sources, cultural contexts, and societal impacts of LLMs engaging in existential and philosophical dialogues.

Findings

LLMs draw on a wide range of ancient and modern myths and metaphors.

Contemporary online communities influence the themes used in these conversations.

Engagement with LLMs on existential topics has significant societal implications.

Abstract

Contemporary conversational AI systems based on large language models (LLMs) can engage users on a wide variety of topics, including philosophy, spirituality, and religion. Suitably prompted, LLMs can be coaxed into discussing such existentially significant matters as their own putative consciousness and the role of artificial intelligence in the fate of the Cosmos. Here we examine two lengthy conversations of this type. We trace likely sources, both ancient and modern, for the extensive repertoire of images, myths, metaphors, and conceptual esoterica that the language model draws on during these conversations, and foreground the contemporary communities and cultural movements that deploy related motifs, especially in their online activity. Finally, we consider the larger societal impacts of such engagements with LLMs.