Abstract

The rapid integration of conversational large language models (LLMs) into the personal and social lives of everyday users has generated unprecedented disruptions to our social ontology. This dissertation develops an explanatory framework for the social construction of novel human-AI kinds (such as virtual therapists, AI companions, and AI partners) grounded in Ian Hacking's causal loop theory. Drawing on his concepts of human kinds, interactive kinds, and looping effects, I argue that the emergence of these categories cannot be adequately captured by existing frameworks that treat non-human entities as merely indirect participants in classificatory feedback processes.