Chair: Xavier Leroy
Abstract
In contrast to comparisons between human minds and computing machines, I propose to consider the "artificial intelligence" as a "intellectual technology", which shapes and deforms our minds. If the digital revolution constitutes a mutation comparable to the emergence of alphabetic writing, as Nora and Minc already asserted in 1978, and if writing constitutes an "intellectual technology" that transforms our ways of thinking, as Goody showed in the 1970s, then the dazzling development of generative AI not only represents a technological and industrial revolution, but also ushers in a psychic, cognitive and cultural revolution.
These new "writing machines" mark a new stage in the automation of language, and one that raises a number of issues. If alphabetic writing gave rise to a "graphic reason", I will argue that generative AIs run the risk of leading to a "computational unreason", as probabilistic calculations take over the activities of interpretation and reflection.
To counter this risk, I will stress the need to design and develop hermeneutic and deliberative digital technologies that support thinking activities, rather than short-circuiting them. Using several examples, I will show that it is possible to mobilize "artificial intelligence" technologies to produce new spiritual instruments, in order to put digital automata at the service of new forms of intelligence.
Anne Alombert
Anne Alombert is a lecturer in contemporary philosophy at the University of Paris-VIII. Her research focuses on the relationship between life, technology and minds in contemporary philosophy, and on the social and political issues surrounding digital technologies and "artificial intelligence". She is the author of Schizophrénie numérique (Allia, 2023), Penser l'humain et la technique (ENS Éditions, 2023), Le capital que je ne suis pas ! (Fayard, 2024) and Penser avec Bernard Stiegler (PUF, 2025).
