Ask Me Anything! How ChatGPT Got Hyped Into Being

Abstract

This paper reconstructs how chatbots based on Large language models (LLMs) like ‘ChatGPT’ got hyped into being. It dissects the actors and dynamics that triggered, fueled and disseminated the hype. Through the lens of hype studies the paper interrogates three empirical realms: 1. Company websites where the chatbots are presented, 2. Blog entries and newspaper interviews by prominent tech figures from the Silicon Valley, and 3. New York Times articles in the timespan between November 2022 and August 2024. The paper shows how the chatbot hype is driven by a dynamic between privileged actors (hypers) and a media frenzy both influencing and being carried by society and politics alike. Different interdependent building blocks in the chatbot hype construction are identified: 1. Depicting LLMs chatbots as knowledge models, 2. Entertaining the uncanny and manipulative side of chatbots, 3. Staging a spectacle of competition between tech giants, and 4. Praising the dualism of doomsday apocalypse or a tech-religious calling for a promised future. The paper unravels the core circulated narrative that turns the hype into a powerful societal phenomenon.

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