Playing with à Chat(GPT)? the Ludic Side of Appropriating AI Technologies

This paper explores the playful aspect of the appropriation of AI technologies, on the grounds of recreational uses of the conversational agent ChatGPT as a case study. From an anthropological perspective, grounded in cultural and comparative reflection, and set within a long-term perspective on play and technology, but also nourished by ethnographic vignettes drawn from observations conducted in (academic) spaces where CHatGPT is used, “play” emerges as a key operator in the familiarization with AI technology. Thus, it becomes apparent that the playful dimension of ChatGPT uses is an integral part of its appropriation, on par with other more "rational" factors. However, this initial empirical approach also shed light on the complexity of playful technologies, which assumes three forms proposed here: functional, derivative, and contingent.