The Rhetorical Possibilities of Communicative Time Travel

ABSTRACT

Artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, provides a unique opportunity to reexamine how affect, memory, authenticity, embodiment, and authorship are conceptualized and discussed in rhetorical scholarship. This is particularly significant as affective experiences resulting from communication with AI are increasingly normative due to the public-facing nature of many large language model chatbots. Drawing first on a recent case wherein an AI user produced a chatbot facsimile of her childhood self, this article suggests that affective changes facilitated by AI represent not only new avenues for exploring affect, but also how time itself is experienced.

KEYWORDS:

• Affect
• artificial intelligence
• ghosts
• memory
• time travel

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).