The sixth installment of Dominic Chen’s series Fermentation and Generation: The “Beast Paths” — An Alternative to Information Technology, titled “Generative AI as an Entity That Asks Questions,” has been published in the web magazine Plain living, high thinking.
By shifting generative AI responses—so often condensed into bullet points—into the fixed form of a “letter,” this article traces how the reader’s stance itself transforms from passive reception to dialogic engagement. While carefully searching for a distance that avoids excessive emotionality, the piece details successive adjustments to the AI’s role and to the prompts, ultimately settling on a voice that accompanies journal writing as an “editor.” Through iterative experimentation with the metaphor of fermentation and with the concepts of yuragi (fluctuation), yudane (entrustment), and yutori (latitude), the design gradually arrives at responses that do not explicitly display these concepts, and introduces a mechanism by which questions are returned at the end of each email. The article presents a concrete trajectory of prompt refinement that articulates a design philosophy for treating AI not as a device that delivers answers, but as a tool that gives questions back.
Sixth article:
６.問いかける存在としての生成ＡＩ ｜ 発酵と生成の「けもの道」 情報技術のオルタナティブ ｜ ドミニク・チェン ｜ 連載 ｜ 考える人 ｜ 新潮社
情報技術には発酵の時間が足りていないのではないか――。『未来をつくる言葉』（新潮文庫）で、新たな視座を伝えたドミニク・チェンが、AIの時代にあるべき情報技術との付き合い方を問う。自身もSNSをすべて断ち、強い覚悟をもって新しい「情報倫理」の可能性を探る。発酵と生成によって切り拓かれるけもの道。はたしてその先にはどんな風景が待ち受けているのか？ ＊バナーの画像は、人が発酵中の味噌と対話をするためのMisobot（「発酵文化芸術祭 金沢」の展示風景）
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