Artificial Text: Prolegomena
Rafał Maciąg · WORLD SCIENTIFIC eBooks · 2025
The text attempts to create the basis for the analysis of artificial text, i.e., text, which is a product of the large language models technology, developed within the field of natural language processing, which is part of the so-called artificial intelligence. This attempt is based on the assumption that the text is a phenomenon of fundamental importance and has an autonomous character. This situation requires the formulation of basic premises that should underlie any reasoning about an artificial text. This chapter formulates three main premises. The first premise is historical and refers to the human project proposed by René Descartes, which assumed mistakenly the complete uniqueness of human cognitive competencies. The second premise refers to the field of philosophy that has accumulated extensive reflection on language and text, i.e., hermeneutics. It proposes several conclusions to confirm its unique and autonomous character. The third premise analyzes the specific properties of the large language models technology mentioned at the beginning, in particular paying attention to their specific use of natural language resources. The described premises allow for a discussion concluding this chapter regarding the existence of the phenomenon of an intelligible and fully fledged artificial text.