Does ChatGPT4 have a dialogical self?: A Bakhtinian perspective

Abstract

In this dialogic research, we explore the question of whether ChatGPT4 has a dialogic self or not. If it does, what kind of dialogic self might it have? If it does not, why not? At the heart of this inquiry is Eugene Matusov’s (the first author’s) “dialogue” with ChatGPT4; this “dialogue” is the dialogic data that we explore “with our hearts and minds.” In this inquiry, our hearts and minds were concerned with diverse meanings of the dialogic data to diverse participants rather than with “how things really are” and their evidence. This dialogic positionality also framed the inquiry process at its beginning and after multiple failed attempts and manipulations to interrogate and engage ChatGPT4 as a discussant. Following Bakhtin, Eugene Matusov decided to treat ChatGPT4 not as an object of investigation but as a dialogic partner and a co-author of this research and writing inquiry. Overall, we find that ChatGPT4 does not author a dialogical self, characterized by personal I-positions, but instead demonstrates a discursive self, characterized by impersonal it-positions. Future research may focus on further training, learning, and development of ChatGPT4 as an Artificial Physical Alive Body (APAB), Artificial Fiduciary Slave (AFS, aka “robot”), Artificial Dialogic Partner (ADP), and Cyborg Dialogic Partner.