ChatGPT for Language Education: or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Bullshit

Abstract

Philosopher and Princeton Professor Emeritus Harry Frankfurt defines "bullshit speech" as a form of speech intended to persuade without regard for the truth. Computer Science Professor Arvind Narayanan of Princeton has referred to ChatGPT as a "bullshit generator," given its remarkable ability to generate plausible sounding yet false information. My paper will reflect on whether there are pedagogical circumstances that can ignore matters of truthfulness, and instead focus on matters of plausibility and coherency. If, as I argue, such circumstances do exist in the context of language learning, then ChatGPT may be a valuable and engaging tool for our classrooms and assignments.

Bio

Andrea Capra is a Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton’s Society of Fellows. He holds a PhD in Italian from Stanford University. His current book project, “Horror Beyond Horror: The Unraveling of the World in Modern Italian Literature,” studies horror’s presence and aesthetics in non-horror literature. A former semiprofessional esports player, he also publishes on technological and political topics.