We worry that AI will spread misinformation, but the real problem runs deeper: AI is incapable of telling the truth at all. Philosophers Bun-Sun Kim and Hongjoon Jo draw on Foucault and Heidegger to argue that humans speak truthfully because our finite, mortal existence is at stake in every word we say. AI, lacking a body, anxiety, or a conscience, risks nothing — it just recombines the internet’s idle talk into statistically plausible text, with no self to reveal. Outsourcing our communication to AI doesn’t just degrade information; it traps us in an endless loop of crowd-sourced mimicry, and threatens our capacity for genuine thought.

ChatGPT can answer complex questions and even seem to hold conversations. But can it tell the truth?

In an era where AI can answer virtually any human question, we must examine whether AI language can truly contain truth. Since the Dartmouth Conference of 1956, we’ve witnessed dramatic technological evolution—from the AI Winter of the 1970s and 80s to today’s sophisticated language models like ChatGPT that generate remarkably human-like text. As we increasingly delegate communication to artificial, rather than human, entities, a fundamental question emerges: Can AI’s artificial language capture the essence of truth conveyed by human discourse?