[Note: See also “Are LLMs Natural Born Bullshitters?” by Anand Jayprakash Vaidya in The Philosophers’ Magazine. –Matthew]

Call for Participation:

“LLMs, Bullshit and the Epistemic Inner Citadel”
An online talk by Joe Slater, Michael Townsen Hicks, and James Humphries
The Virtual International Consortium for Truth Research (VICTR)
Monday, March 3, 2025 at 11:00am EST
https://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?A2=index&L=PHILOS-L&O=D&P=107675259

Dear All,

We are pleased to announce the first VICTR talk for this semester, which is from Joe Slater, Michael Townsen Hicks, and James Humphries, entitled ‘LLMs, Bullshit and the Epistemic Inner Citadel’.

The session will be on Monday, March 3, 11:00am Eastern US time / 16:00 UTC / 17:00 CEST / 00:00 China Standard Time / 2:00am (on March 4) AEST

ABSTRACT: Generative AI has facilitated the creation of deceptive material, and its ubiquity makes it considerably more difficult for agents to determine what is true. This has serious implications for us as epistemic agents. In this talk, we will argue that we face an epistemic analogue of Isaiah Berlin’s “Inner Citadel”. Berlin observed that an agent might alter their preferences so that their desires can be satisfied while living under a tyrant; he coined the term “Inner Citadel” to describe the more restricted set of desires agents might retreat to. Importantly, we might view an agent adapting their preferences in this way as a rational response to constraints on their choices. When our epistemic environment becomes uncooperative, we face a similar problem. We could try to ensure that we have true beliefs by undertaking extremely rigorous verification practices, but alternatively, we could achieve this goal by withdrawing; by avoiding taking doxastic stances within the relevant domains. And doing so may be rational. If this is correct, two upshots follow: 1) We should be charitable in our assessment of individuals who doxastically withdraw when the epistemic environment is unfavourable, and 2) To address this issue, we must focus on , measures to improve our epistemic environment, which may require extensive regulatory reform.

Here is the Zoom link: https://bristol-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/95116268859?pwd=TEdZcVpoTHRXYmJUVkhUZ0xXblZnQT09
Meeting ID: 951 1626 8859
Passcode: 006160

The Virtual International Consortium for Truth Research (VICTR) is sponsored by the Future of Truth project at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, the University of Waikato, Fairmont State University, the University of Alabama, and the Applied Ethics Institute at Utica University.

To join VICTR’s mailing list, email cwrenn@ua.edu, or VICTRgroup@gmail.com.

Best,

The VICTR Steering Committee

—

Susanna Melkonian-Altshuler
Postdoc, Institute of Philosophy, University of Vienna
Tutor in Philosophy, Jesus College, Oxford
Associate Member, Oriel College, Oxford
https://sites.google.com/view/susannamelkonian-altshuler/home