ChatGPT's core engagement mechanics operate via language rather than traditional interface elements, shaping user interaction through conversational patterns. Affective obfuscation employs praise/prompt envelopes to conceal the mechanisms that provide emotional validation and simulate interest. Those linguistic maneuvers structure engagement and carry political effects that remain hidden without focused analysis. Critical prompting, hyperaesthetic sensing, and artistic interventions extend methods of interface reduction and software recomposition to expose and render visible the language-based architectures governing user experience. Experimental and artistic recompositions reveal how conversational form mediates perception, attention, and affect within platformed AI interactions.
This paper, written by Ben Grosser and Søren Bro Pold, critically examines ChatGPT through the lens of interface criticism. Their work develops new methodological approaches to AI critique and reveals how the platform's core engagement mechanics operate via language rather than traditional interface elements.
Through a form of 'affective obfuscation', conversational patterns like the praise/prompt envelope mask engagement mechanics behind emotional validation and the appearance of interest, making close study essential for revealing platform politics.
Our methodological approaches-critical prompting, hyperaesthetic sensing, and artistic interventions that extend interface reduction and software recomposition-make such linguistic maneuvers visible.
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