Chatbot as Model

I don’t find it easy to think of a chatbot as a model.  I’m sure it’s worth the effort, though, if for no other reason than to face up to that very resistance. They are industrial products, but I, for one, don’t instantly see them that way. While slogging through the tides of absurd hype, promises of health, wealth and eternal life, warring displays of greed and hubris, it’s good to remind yourself that these are ads for products, gadgets, finite and fallible as a Model-T Ford.

Of course there is far more at stake in the production of synthetic, super- and subhuman perception and cognition than in the production of an automobile, and it’s all happening at an inhuman tempo. And yet the mere exercise of seeing models as products — hardly a far-fetched idea — and calling them models is salutary.  Suddenly, we become customers, rather than cowering failures or “dumb fucks,” as Zuckerberg so memorably put it. If they’re so clever, why can’t they really meet their customers’ needs?  I’ll demand my own model, please, one that will help me discover things without trying to replace me!!!