Book Club Potluck - Understanding Conversational AI

Karl will host our discussion of Understanding Conversational AI: Philosophy, Ethics, and Social Impact of Large Language Models by Thierry Poibeau. Karl suggested this book.

What do large language models really know and what does it mean to live alongside them?

This book offers a critical and interdisciplinary exploration of large language models (LLMs), examining how they reshape our understanding of language, cognition, and society. Drawing on philosophy of language, linguistics, cognitive science, and AI ethics, it investigates how these models generate meaning, simulate reasoning, and perform tasks that once seemed uniquely human-from translation to moral judgment and literary creation.

Rather than offering a purely technical account, the book interrogates the epistemic, ethical, and political dimensions of LLMs. It explores their limitations, their embedded biases, and their role in processes of automation, misinformation, and platform enclosure. At the same time, it reflects on how LLMs prompt us to revisit fundamental questions: What is understanding? What is creativity? How do we ascribe agency or trust in a world of synthetic language?

Written for scholars, students, and curious readers across the humanities, social sciences, and computer science, this is both a philosophical inquiry and a practical guide to navigating the era of generative AI. It invites readers to think critically about the promises and perils of language technologies-and about the kind of future we are shaping with them.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION. Speaking machines, thinking humans

PART I: SENSE WITHOUT REFERENCE (large language models and language)
Chapter 1. Latent linguistics: the conception of language in large language models
Chapter 2. From the design of large language models to a reassessment of linguistic theory
Chapter 3. Large language models and the future of writing

PART II: THE RISKS OF ANTHROPOMORPHISM (large language models and the mind)
Chapter 4. Large language models and reasoning, the boundaries of mind and consciousness
Chapter 5. Large language models and creativity
Chapter 6. Moral reasoning and synthetic judgment in large language models

PART III: THE SOCIAL LIFE OF LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS (their reach, roles, and consequences)
Chapter 7. Large language models and critical thinking: bias, social impact, and political implications
Chapter 8. Disinformation, misinformation, and the crisis of trust in AI-generated content
Chapter 9. Ethics at scale

CONCLUSION. Thinking with machines

Annex. The architecture and training of large language models

If you would like to host one of our events and you have a book in mind, please let me, Karl Kiefer, or Mark Hopkins know, and we will create a Meetup event for your book, assuming your suggested title qualifies as a book on philosophy in our view, and assuming that we deem you to be qualified to host. Our criteria are somewhat vague, but let's just say that we are not interested in books on the supernatural. We are interested in books that you might find in a syllabus for a college philosophy course. We are also focused on finding hosts who have demonstrated ability to direct philosophical conversation. You can always email me at camkruger@gmail.com if you have questions and/or suggestions.

As always, it's essential that everyone who comes to the meeting reads the book in its entirety and brings something for the potluck.

Happy reading!