Talking and thinking with AI : how AI chatbots restructure epistemic identity and virtue

Centa Strahovnik, Mateja (author), Strahovnik, Vojko (author)

The incorporation of large language models or ai-driven chatbots into every-day communication and knowledge practices has significant implications for how we think and understand ourselves as epistemic agents. This paper investigates how ai chatbots reshape epistemic identity and virtue, focusing on the effects of human-ai interaction. The use of ai chatbots can ultimately impact epistemic virtues such as curiosity, intellectual humility, and open-mindedness on the one hand, and also raise questions about epistemic agency and responsibility on the other. This paper emphasizes the importance of reflective practices that maintain human autonomy, foster epistemic responsibility, and promote virtuous collabo-ration with ai systems. Ultimately, this paper advocates for a partial reimagining of epistemic identity and epistemic collaboration in the age of ai, seeking a bal-ance between the advantages of ai and the significance and uniqueness of human intellectual endeavors.

• Language: English
• Keywords: epistemic identity, epistemic virtue, agency, artificial intelligence (AI), human-AI interaction, epistemic collaboration
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: TEOF - Theological Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 18.12.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 75-95, 333, 345
• Numbering: Let. 30, št. 119/120
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-177692
• UDC: 159.922:128.5:004.89
• ISSN on article: 1318-8828
• DOI: 10.35469/poligrafi.2025.510
• COBISS.SI-ID: 262550275
• Publication date in RUL: 31.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Poligrafi : revija za religiologijo, mitologijo in filozofijo
• Shortened title: Poligrafi
• Publisher: Nova revija, Društvo za primerjalno religiologijo, Nova revija, Društvo za primerjalno religiologijo, Univerza na Primorskem, Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče, Univerzitetna založba Annales, Društvo za primerjalno religiologijo, Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče, Annales ZRS, Društvo za primerjalno religiologijo
• ISSN: 1318-8828
• COBISS.SI-ID: 59336192

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Pogovarjanje in razmišljanje z umetno inteligenco

Abstract

Vključevanje velikih jezikovnih modelov ali klepetalnih robotov, ki jih poganja umetna inteligenca (Ui), v vsakdanje prakse komuniciranja in doseganja vednosti ima pomembne posledice za to, kako mislimo in razumemo sebe kot spoznavne delovalce. Ta prispevek raziskuje načine, na katere klepetalni roboti z Ui preobli-kujejo spoznavno identiteto in vrline, pri čemer se osredinja na učinke interakcije med človekom in umetno inteligenco. Uporaba klepetalnih robotov z Ui lahko navsezadnje vpliva na spoznavne vrline, kot so zvedavost, intelektualna ponižnost in odprtost na eni strani, na drugi pa sproža vprašanja o spoznavni dejavnosti in odgovornosti. Članek poudarja pomen refleksivnih praks, ki ohranjajo človekovo avtonomijo, spodbujajo spoznavno odgovornost in krepijo krepostno sodelovanje s sistemi umetne inteligence. Na koncu se članek zavzema za delno preoblikovanje spoznavne identitete in spoznavnega sodelovanja v dobi Ui, pri čemer išče ravno-vesje med prednostmi Ui ter pomenom in edinstvenostjo človeških intelektualnih prizadevanj.

• Keywords: spoznavna identiteta, spoznavne vrline, delovanje, umetna inteligenca (UI), interakcija med človekom in UI, spoznavno sodelovanje

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J6-60105-2025
• Name: Teologija in digitalizacija: antropološki in etični izzivi

• Funder: HRZZ - Croatian Science Foundation
• Funding programme: Research Projects
• Project number: IP-2024-05-4113
• Name: Epistemic Democracy in a Digital Era