Philosophy, Ethics, and Social Impact of Large Language Models

NameThierry Poibeau

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InstitutionCNRS & ENS-PSL

DepartmentLaboratoire Lattice

CountryFrance

Biography

Thierry Poibeau is a CNRS Research Director based in Paris at the École normale supérieure-PSL. He is also a fellow of PRAIRIE-PSAI (Paris Artificial Intelligence Research Institute – Paris School of Artificial Intelligence). His research focuses primarily on natural language processing, computational humanities, and the societal impact of artificial intelligence.

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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.

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• Introduction. Speaking machines, thinking humans

• Latent linguistics: the conception of language in large language models

• From the design of large language models to a reassessment of linguistic theory

• Large language models and the future of writing

• Large language models and reasoning, the boundaries of mind and consciousness

• Large language models and creativity

• Moral reasoning and synthetic judgment in large language models

• Large language models and critical thinking: bias, social impact, and political implications

• Disinformation, misinformation, and the crisis of trust in AI-generated content

• Ethics at scale

• Conclusion. Thinking with machines

• Annex. The architecture and training of large language models

• Introduction. Speaking machines, thinking humans

• Latent linguistics: the conception of language in large language models

• From the design of large language models to a reassessment of linguistic theory

• Large language models and the future of writing

• Large language models and reasoning, the boundaries of mind and consciousness

• Large language models and creativity

• Moral reasoning and synthetic judgment in large language models

• Large language models and critical thinking: bias, social impact, and political implications

• Disinformation, misinformation, and the crisis of trust in AI-generated content

• Ethics at scale

• Conclusion. Thinking with machines

• Annex. The architecture and training of large language models

Cognitive Science

Linguistics

Philosophy Of Language

Cognition

Language Technologies

Synthetic Language

Ai Ethics

Cognitive Science

Linguistics

Philosophy Of Language

Cognition

Language Technologies

Synthetic Language

Ai Ethics

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