Transforming Agency. On the mode of existence of Large Language Models

Understand

This paper investigates the ontological characterization of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT.

• Between inflationary and deflationary accounts, we pay special attention to their status as agents.
• This requires explaining in detail the architecture, processing, and training procedures that enable LLMs to display their capacities, and the extensions used to turn LLMs into agent-like systems.
• After a systematic analysis we conclude that a LLM fails to meet necessary and sufficient conditions for autonomous agency in the light of embodied theories of mind: the individuality condition (it is not the product of its own activity, it is not even directly affected by it), the normativity condition (it does not generate its own norms or goals), and, partially the interactional asymmetry condition (it is not the origin and sustained source of its interaction with the environment).