Better Offline CZM Rewind: The Academics That Think ChatGPT Is BS
47 snips
Aug 13, 2025 
Michael Townsen Hicks, James Humphries, and Joe Slater, academics from the University of Glasgow and co-authors of the provocative paper 'ChatGPT is Bullshit,' dive into the shortcomings of AI like ChatGPT. They question its superficial understanding of language and ethics in academia. Discussing the philosophical implications, they dissect how AI-generated content differs from genuine human cognition. The trio raises concerns about AI's limitations in education, emphasizing the risks of over-reliance by students and the societal implications of these technologies.
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Bullshit As The Right Descriptor
- ChatGPT outputs are best described as Frankfurt-style bullshit: it generates speech without caring about truth.
- The model aims to make people believe its utterances, not to represent reality.
Designed To Sound Human, Not To Believe
- The designers and training objectives shape ChatGPT to sound human, not to track truth.
- Its goal is plausibility and naturalness rather than representing the world.
Paper Born From A Pub Complaint
- The paper idea sprang from a pub conversation where Glasgow philosophers joked student essays were 'Frankfurtian bullshit.'
- That pub gripe matured into a formal paper connecting ChatGPT outputs to Frankfurt's theory.
