Understanding Conversational AI

This page is a companion site for the book Understanding Conversational AI: Philosophy, Ethics, and the Social Impact of Large Language Models, published by Ubiquity Press in December 2025.

The book is fully open access and examines large language models from philosophical, ethical, and societal perspectives.

This page will provide additional materials, updates, and resources related to the book.

Reference: Understanding Conversational AI: Philosophy, Ethics, and Social Impact of Large Language Models
Thierry Poibeau
Ubiquity Press (open access)
Link to the publisher: https://ubiquitypress.com/books/m/10.5334/bde and to Jstor

Table of content

INTRODUCTION. Speaking machines, thinking humans

PART I: SENSE WITHOUT REFERENCE (large language models and language)
Chapter 1. Latent linguistics: the conception of language in large language models
Chapter 2. From the design of large language models to a reassessment of linguistic theory
Chapter 3. Large language models and the future of writing

PART II: THE RISKS OF ANTHROPOMORPHISM (large language models and the mind)
Chapter 4. Large language models and reasoning, the boundaries of mind and consciousness
Chapter 5. Large language models and creativity
Chapter 6. Moral reasoning and synthetic judgment in large language models

PART III: THE SOCIAL LIFE OF LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS (their reach, roles, and consequences)
Chapter 7. Large language models and critical thinking: bias, social impact, and political implications
Chapter 8. Disinformation, misinformation, and the crisis of trust in AI-generated content
Chapter 9. Ethics at scale

CONCLUSION. Thinking with machines

Annex. The architecture and training of large language models