By Thierry Poibeau
Publication Date: 2026-04-20 13:40:00
What do the large language models behind human-like conversational AI really know and what does it mean to live with them?
A new book, Understanding Conversational AI by Thierry Poibeau, offers a critical and interdisciplinary examination of large language models (LLMs) and examines how they are changing our understanding of language, cognition and society. Drawing on philosophy of language, linguistics, cognitive science, and AI ethics, it explores how LLMs create meaning, simulate reasoning, and perform tasks that once seemed uniquely human, from translation to moral judgment to literary creation.
The book examines the limitations of these models, their embedded biases, and their role in processes of automation, misinformation, and platforming, while reflecting on how they lead us to re-examine fundamental questions: What is understanding? What is creativity? How do we attribute agency or trust to a world of synthetic language?
