 Beware of botshit: How to manage the epistemic risks of generative chatbotsTimothy R. Hannigan, Ian P. McCarthy and André Spicer Business Horizons, 2024, vol. 67, issue 5, 471-486 Abstract: Advances in large language model (LLM) technology enable chatbots to generate and analyze content for our work. Generative chatbots do this work by predicting responses rather than knowing the meaning of their responses. In other words, chatbots can produce coherent-sounding but inaccurate or fabricated content, referred to as hallucinations. When humans uncritically use this untruthful content, it becomes what we call botshit. This article focuses on how to use chatbots for content generation work while mitigating the epistemic (i.e., the process of producing knowledge) risks associated with botshit. Drawing on risk management research, we introduce a typology framework that orients how chatbots can be used based on two dimensions: response veracity verifiability and response veracity importance. The framework identifies four modes of chatbot work (authenticated, autonomous, automated, and augmented) with a botshit-related risk (ignorance, miscalibration, routinization, and black boxing). We describe and illustrate each mode and offer advice to help chatbot users guard against the botshit risks that come with each mode. Keywords: Chatbots; Bullshit; Botshit; Artificial intelligence; Natural language processing (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:bushor:v:67:y:2024:i:5:p:471-486 DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2024.03.001 Access Statistics for this article Business Horizons is currently edited by C. M. Dalton More articles in Business Horizons from Elsevier |
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