Institut de recherche sur les lois fondamentales de l'Univers

Whether one is young or old, a simple ChatGPT users or a computer expert, we all face the advent of a new era, that of talking machines. New transformer-based chatbots are fascinating. What knowledge do they have? What kind of behavior emerges statistically? What scientific puzzles do they raise? In the past, this fascination was the mark of dialogues with non-human entities that populated myths. Conversational agents produce an effect that is as illusory, and as real, as the one made on us by gods, oracles, angels or demons. Between the prowess of digital technology and ancient stories, there are technological and metaphysical, political and poetic shifts in a world in which we no longer have a monopoly on  linguistic expression.