Megan Fritts guides us through the changes Large Language Models are making on our conversational skills, expression and content. LLMs (whether ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini) are wildly popular and widely used to lighten our workloads. But what about the effects on our connection with each other? We consider particular desires for more time for conversation (e.g. by reducing women's domestic labour) and more comfort (especially Gen Z). And if LLMs may help us with frictions and overcome isolation, on first dates or in our long term relationships. We then explore concrete changes in the material of conversation -- our speech patterns and memory or "ownership of ideas" -- as well as the potential social consequences, such as equity. Megan offers some cautions as she makes the case that we may want to rethink our usage.
We refer to Megan Fritts' publications "A Matter of Words," The Point Magazine (May 2025) and https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/research/report/talk-trust-and-trade-offs_2025_web.pdf
Megan recommends... Re-Engineering Humanity, by Brett M. Frischmann and Evan Selinger. A comprehensive look at how emerging technology in general is affecting and undermining human agency.
Megan Fritts is professor of philosophy at University of Arkansas at Little Rock, researching emerging technologies and human flourishing, and co-host of the podcast Philosophy on the Fringes.
