Title
Artificial Speech and Its Authors
Abstract
Some of the systems used in natural language generation (NLG), a branch of applied computational linguistics, have the capacity to create or assemble somewhat original messages adapted to new contexts. In this paper, taking Bernard Williams' account of assertion by machines as a starting point, I argue that NLG systems meet the criteria for being speech actants to a substantial degree. They are capable of authoring original messages, and can even simulate illocutionary force and speaker meaning. Background intelligence embedded in their datasets enhances these speech capacities. Although there is an open question about who is ultimately responsible for their speech, if anybody, we can settle this question by using the notion of proxy speech, in which responsibility for artificial speech acts is assigned legally or conventionally to an entity separate from the speech actant.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1007/s11023-013-9303-9
Minds and Machines
Keywords
Field
DocType
Artificial speech,Speech acts,Machine intelligence,Natural language generation,Philosophy of computational linguistics
Speech corpus,Natural language generation,Speech analytics,Computer science,Cognitive science,Computational linguistics,Assertion,Telegraphic speech,Actant,Natural language processing,Artificial intelligence,Linguistics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
23
4
0924-6495
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.43
8
Authors
1
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Philip J. Nickel110.77