M. Zaenul Muttaqin, Ghanesya Hari Murti, Ferinandus Leonardo Snanfi
A recent article (ChatGPT is Bullshit (Partly) Because People are Bullshitters) re-emerged the debate over the use of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. Emphasising the user-subject, Licon (2025) argued that ChatGPT mediates reputation and fake intelligence to engage in bullshit markets. In short, the singularity of the user and ChatGPT together constitutes bullshit. To engage in this discussion, we associate bullshit with sophistry. First, we interpret ChatGPT as having a function identical to sophistry, with the ability to select every piece of data but without the burden of source validity. Second, we expand the discussion to how human subjects polish and transmit bullshit into rhetorical truth. As with Frankfurt, bullshit is essentially the subject’s deliberate falsification of information without any consideration of truth, and in achieving this goal, ChatGPT is merely a rhetorically convincing facilitator. By combining the rhetorical tradition of the sophists and the Frankfurt concept of bullshit, this article expands the retrospective discussion of ignorance and falsehood in the age of information technology. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2025.
Public Administration Doctoral Program, Makassar State University, Jl. Pettarani, South Sulawesi, Makassar City, 90222, Indonesia; Public Administration Study Program, Cenderawasih University, Papua, Jayapura City, Indonesia; English Literature Study Program, University of Jember, East Java, Jember City, Indonesia; Government Science Study Program, Cenderawasih University, Papua, Jayapura City, Indonesia; Cenderawasih University, Papua, Jayapura City, 99358, Indonesia
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