16th of September 2024
Written by Louis de Diesbach
When I began writing Hello ChatGPT, a simple question intrigued me: why do we greet a machine with “Hello”? This seemingly insignificant gesture actually signals a shift in our relationship with machines. Unlike our interactions with a dishwasher or coffee machine, communicating with a chatbot like ChatGPT has a nearly human quality. Behind each greeting we offer a robot lies ethical, psychological, and societal implications.
It all started with an article I wrote for La Libre, where I questioned this very act of greeting a machine: “Should we say hello to ChatGPT?” This question led me to explore the blurred boundary between humans and artificial intelligence. With this book, I wanted to delve deeper into the subject, drawing insights from diverse fields: psychology, anthropology, economics, politics, and, of course, philosophy. My goal was to understand why and how we’ve come to view a machine as an almost human conversational partner.
Our tendency to anthropomorphize machines raises societal questions. Why do we want our robots to exhibit human traits, even greeting them as if they were friends? In Hello ChatGPT, I break down this phenomenon, drawing on the works of thinkers like Sherry Turkle, Eric Sadin, and others.
Through this reflection, I aim to help readers see beyond the interaction and consider what this new relationship reveals about us and our connections with others.
Technology, as Anaëlle Martin noted in her review, is never neutral. Algorithms, for instance, aren’t just tools; they shape our thinking, alter our interactions, and impact society. By greeting a chatbot, we initiate a familiar relationship with a program that knows us all too well. This reality raises questions of ethics, privacy, and human dignity. In this book, I explore these mechanisms and the risks of techno-solutionism, the blind faith in technology as a solution to all our problems.
My hope is that Hello ChatGPT fosters awareness: our relationship with machines is not something to be taken lightly. Through this book, I invite readers to adopt a more thoughtful attitude toward technology, to question this strange familiarity, and to envision a future where we control our interactions with machines rather than lose ourselves in them.
Hello ChatGPT is more than a book about AI; it’s an invitation to reflect on our humanity in the face of machines. I’m thrilled to have explored this subject, and I hope this work encourages you to question, debate, and perhaps even reconsider your own interactions with technology.
This book is now in your hands, and I eagerly await your thoughts and impressions, as it’s together that we can deepen this essential reflection for the future.
Written by Louis de Diesbach
Tech ethicist and consultant
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