Credence, attribution, and creativity in the construction of literary meaning with generative artificial intelligence

Abstract The rise of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has shifted the perception of machines from mere tools to agents capable of constructing culture, with disembodied language models increasingly viewed as reliable mirrors of the human mind. This reduction of the mind to a computational model raises questions about the role of human consciousness, experience, and agency. I argue that, by embracing a posthuman computational view, we risk to dissolve humanness into algorithmic processes devoid of phenomenological depth, thereby grounding meaning in abstract symbolic representations rather than embodied, metaphorical reasoning tied to physical and social realities. This shift toward an algorithmic mindset, driven by the promise of efficiency and performance, also risks exhausting the narratological credibility of plots introducing possible worlds constructed through technology. Stories once anchored in shared cultural metaphors could become mere algorithmic pastiches – fragmented collages devoid of meaning. This conceptual study explores how attributing agency to cognitively enhancing technologies results in an undue attribution of qualia to GenAI. It also examines reductive narratives of AI creativity based solely on information processing, contrasting this with human creativity based on divergent heuristics and reasoning through associative learning. Ultimately, while AI can enhance human capabilities, over-anthropomorphizing these systems risks ascribing qualities these symbolic models lack, which requires us to devise a clear delineation of boundaries to harness GenAI’s power responsibly.