Megan Fritts guides us through the changes Large Language Models are making on our conversational skills, expression and content -- and not for the better. LLMs (whether ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini) are widely used to outsource our written communication. But what are the effects on conversation? We consider desire 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 on first dates or communication conflict in our long term relationships. We then explore concrete changes in the material of conversation -- our speech patterns and "ownership of ideas" -- as well as the potential social consequences, such as equity.
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.
