Special Lecture: Webb Keane (University of Michigan)

From Talking Tools to Metahumans: Social Interaction, Semiotic Skill, and the Authority of AI Chatbots

Abstract: As conversational AI systems become more capable, people increasingly interpret their outputs as authoritative, insightful, or even socially meaningful. This talk explores how humans attribute agency, intention, and knowledge to technological systems, and how language, interaction, and cultural expectations shape our understanding of AI chatbots. Drawing on perspectives from anthropology, semiotics, and science and technology studies, the discussion will examine why AI systems can appear to possess insight beyond their training data and what this reveals about the social life of intelligent tools. 

Bio: Webb Keane is the George Herbert Mead Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. His research examines language, religion, ethics, and the social foundations of meaning and agency, with a focus on how people attribute intention and authority to objects, technologies, and institutions. He is the author of several influential books on semiotics and social theory and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

This event is sponsored by the Center for Responsible Machine Learning and the Mellichamp Initiative in Mind and Machine Intelligence.