The epistemological consequences of llms: Rethinking collective intelligence and information institutions

I this talk at the ASIS&T SIG Symposium I presented my paper “The epistemological consequences of llms: Rethinking collective intelligence and information institutions”. The paper advances an analysis of LLMs from the perspective of modern epistemology, arguing that LLMs fundamentally lack reflective knowledge, the type of knowledge that endows propositions with internalist justifiedness and upon which knolwedge transmission ultimately depends. Because LLMs are transmitters of already justified bodies of knowledge, their use as sources of justifiedness threatens to erode the epistemic status of human reasoners. The erosion of internalist justifiedness across networks of human reasoners threatens the advancement of knowledge and can exacerbate the proliferation of errors. The talk proposes the institution of epistemic norms within human-LLM interaction, proposing both institutional and individual norm-setting models that seek to preserve and promote epistemic virtues.