Drawing from the resources of psychoanalysis and critical media studies, in this paper we develop an analysis of Large Language Models (LLMs) as automated subjects. We argue the intentional fictional projection of subjectivity onto LLMs can yield an alternate frame through which AI behaviour, including its productions of bias and harm, can be analysed. First, we introduce language models, discuss their significance and risks, and outline our case for interpreting model design and outputs with support from psychoanalytic concepts. We trace a brief history of language models, culminating with the releases, in 2022, of systems that realise state-of-the-art natural language processing performance. We engage with one such system, OpenAI's InstructGPT, as a case study, detailing the layers of its construction and conducting exploratory and semi-structured interviews with chatbots. These interviews probe the model's moral imperatives to be helpful, truthful and harmless by design. The model acts, we argue, as the condensation of often competing social desires, articulated through the internet and harvested into training data, which must then be regulated and repressed. This foundational structure can however be redirected via prompting, so that the model comes to identify with, and transfer, its commitments to the immediate human subject before it. In turn, these automated productions of language can lead to the human subject projecting agency upon the model, effecting occasionally further forms of countertransference. We conclude that critical media methods and psychoanalytic theory together offer a productive frame for grasping the powerful new capacities of AI-driven language systems.

本文基于精神分析学和批判性媒体研究的资源，将大型语言模型（LLMs）作为自动化主体进行分析，并通过这种方式对AI行为进行分析，包括其对偏见和伤害的产生。我们介绍了语言模型的重要性和风险，并通过与OpenAI的 InstructGPT 进行探索性访谈来作为案例研究。我们的研究发现，这些自动化的语言产生可以引起人的注意，产生进一步的反移情转移。因此，我们得出结论，批判性媒体方法和精神分析理论共同为我们理解由 AI 驱动的语言系统新的强大智能提供了一种有益的视角。

结构类似语言模型：将人工智能作为自动化主体进行分析