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LLMS and the Death of the Author

An open discussion with David Gunkel

• Date: 22. April 2025
• Time 10:00
• Street: Linzer Str. 4, 28359 Bremen
• Location: ZeMKI

Abstract

In response to any written text—like the sentences you are reading right now—it is reasonable to ask who wrote it and can therefore explain and authorize what it says. This seemingly sensible inquiry is typically resolved by pointing to and naming the author. And it is the identity of this individual—who they are and where they come from—that often serves as a shortcut for determining the validity or truthfulness of written content. But when something is written or generated by a large language model, like ChatGPT, Claude, or Deepseek, who or what is the author? Is it the algorithm? Is it the human who prompted it? Or is it perhaps both? Counter to the recent crop of AI criticism, which bemoan the end of the human writer, I will argue that this disruption in literary authority is actually a good thing, precisely because it flips the script on everything we knew—or thought we knew—about writing and the author function.

Bio

David J. Gunkel (PhD) is an award-winning educator, scholar and author, specializing in ethics of emerging technology. Formally educated in philosophy and media studies, his teaching and research synthesize the hype of high-technology with the rigor and insight of contemporary critical analysis. He is the author of over 80 scholarly journal articles and book chapters, has published 12 influential books, lectured and delivered award-winning papers throughout North and South America and Europe, is the managing editor and co-founder of the International Journal of Žižek Studies and co-editor of the Indiana University Press series in Digital Game Studies. He currently holds the position of Professor in the Department of Communication at Northern Illinois University (USA), and his teaching has been recognized with numerous awards, including NIU’s Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the prestigious Presidential Teaching Professorship.