Questionable devices: Applying a large language model to deliberate carbon removal

Laurie Waller*, David Moats*, Emily Cox*, Rob Bellamy*

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

This paper presents a device-centred approach to deliberation, developed in deliberative workshops appraising methods for removing carbon dioxide from the air. Our approach involved deploying the Large Language Model application ChatGPT (sometimes termed “generative AI”) to elicit questions and generate texts about carbon removal. We develop the notion of the “questionable” device to foreground the informational unruliness ChatGPT introduced into the deliberations. The analysis highlights occasions where the deliberative apparatus became a focus of collective critique, including over: issue definitions, expert-curated resources, lay identities and social classifications. However, in this set-up ChatGPT was all too often engaged unquestioningly as an instrument for informing discussion; its instrumental lure disguising the unruliness it introduced into the workshops. In concluding, we elaborate the notion of questionable devices and reflect on the way carbon removal has been “devised” as a field in want of informed deliberation
Original languageEnglish
Article number103940
Pages (from-to)1-9
Number of pages9
JournalEnvironmental Science and Policy
Volume162
Early online date6 Nov 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2024

Keywords

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Climate Change
  • Deliberation

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