Are conversational large language models speakers?

This paper examines the question whether conversational large language models (LLMs) are speakers. As a starting point it considers the Gricean notion of speaker meaning and from there argues for a notion of speakers that centers the social practices or Wittgensteinain language games in which utterances are produced. It examines the prospects for understanding conversational LLM with reference to a language game of giving and asking for reasons and concludes with both a concern, "the chatbot conceit", and a challenge, i.e. the challenge for pragmatics researchers to gain a fundamental understanding of what it means to be a speaker.