Algorithms, language, and poetry: a phenomenological perspective
AI and Ethics December 19, 2025 Daniel Turillazzi Fornés, Angelo Trotta
Algorithmic formalizations of language, such as those used in large language models, are not neutral tools but historically specific crystallizations of a more primordial field of embodied expression. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty's account of embodied speech and Heidegger's concept of technological enframing (Gestell), the authors argue that reducing language to optimizable signals risks suppressing its living, self-renewing capacity to generate new sense. The paper sketches phenomenologically informed criteria for language technologies that respect expressive openness, relational depth, and the historicity of signifiers, offering orientation for AI ethics debates.