{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,13]],"date-time":"2026-02-13T13:42:51Z","timestamp":1770990171071,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,13]],"date-time":"2026-02-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1770940800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Artif. Intell."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Large Language Models (LLMs) are often framed through metaphors such as \u201cbullshit\u201d or \u201cstochastic parrots,\u201d emphasizing missing grounding, belief, or intention. While rhetorically powerful, these framings obscure how LLMs are used for sense-making, ideation, and communication. We reframe LLMs as Operators for General Cognitive Shortcuts (GECOS) within techno-semiotic assemblages.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We develop a functional model by integrating concepts from Luhmannian systems theory, Deleuzian ontology, and minimally from Husserlian phenomenology. Using conceptual analysis as functional\u2013comparative synthesis, we analyze human\u2013LLM interaction without attributing agency, belief, or understanding to the model.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>GECOS explains LLM usefulness as communicative complexity reduction: models generate connectable continuations by approximating second-order expectations (\u201cwhat is expected to be expected\u201d), enabling interactional continuity without reference to truth or intention. Via Luhmann\u2019s contingency formula, LLMs help users navigate uncertainty through procedurally plausible coherence.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The framework shifts attention from ontological debates about \u201cunderstanding\u201d to the operational role of LLMs in distributed sense-making. It also highlights risks: overreliance, emotional projection, and normative flattening when connectability substitutes for justification.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>GECOS offers a non-anthropomorphic alternative to deficit metaphors by modeling LLMs as pragmatic operators that sustain communicative momentum and enable workable continuations in complex socio-technical environments.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/frai.2026.1681525","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,13]],"date-time":"2026-02-13T12:40:45Z","timestamp":1770986445000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Large language models as cognitive shortcuts: a systems-theoretic reframing beyond bullshit"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Murat","family":"Sariyar","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Engineering and Computer Science, Bern University of Applied Sciences","place":["Bern, Switzerland"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","first-page":"37","article-title":"The event in Deleuze","volume":"2","author":"Badiou","year":"2007","journal-title":"Parrhesia"},{"key":"ref2","volume-title":"Simulacra and simulation","author":"Baudrillard","year":"1994"},{"key":"ref3","first-page":"610","article-title":"On the dangers of stochastic parrots: can language models be too big?","author":"Bender","year":"2021"},{"key":"ref4","first-page":"5185","article-title":"Climbing towards NLU: on meaning, form, and understanding in the age of data","author":"Bender","year":"2020"},{"key":"ref5","volume-title":"Edmund Husserl: the nexus of phenomena: intentionality, perception, and temporality","author":"Bernet","year":"2005"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"457","DOI":"10.3366\/dls.2017.0276","article-title":"Assemblage theory, or, the future of an illusion","volume":"11","author":"Buchanan","year":"2017","journal-title":"Deleuze Stud."},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"425","DOI":"10.1007\/s42438-023-00398-5","article-title":"ChatGPT and the educational AI chatter: full of bullshit or trying to tell us something?","volume":"6","author":"Costello","year":"2024","journal-title":"Postdigit. 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