A new article, co-authored with Selin Gerlek, was published in the recently founded Journal of Human Technology Relations. The title reads \u201cMateriality and Machinic Embodiment: A Postphenomenological Inquiry into ChatGPT\u2019s Active User Interface\u201d. The article was published as open access and the abstract reads like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe rise of ChatGPT affords a fundamental transformation of the dynamics in human-technology interaction, as Large Language Model (LLM) applications increasingly emulate our social habits in digital communication. This poses a challenge to Don Ihde\u2019s explicit focus on material technics and their affordances: ChatGPT did not introduce new material technics. Rather, it is a new digital app that runs on the same physical devices we have used for years. This paper undertakes a re-evaluation of some postphenomenological concepts, introducing the notion of quasi-materiality to better understand the role that user interfaces (UIs) play in affording different stabilities in technological mediation. We propose the term \u201cactive User Interface\u201d (aUI) to denote the specifics of how ChatGPT makes use of LLMs within its UI design to afford seamless, intuitive conversations with a quasi-other in what Ihde termed \u201calterity relations\u201d. Drawing inspiration from Peter-Paul Verbeek\u2019s work on the intelligification of our material world through (AI) technologies, our analysis leads to the formulation of a novel stability afforded through aUIs: \u201cmachinic embodiment stability\u201d. This concept sheds light on how ChatGPT\u2019s aUI integrates with our established habits of digitally mediated social communication. As the use of LLMs is expected to become increasingly prevalent, this provides a new perspective on the current evolution of the technological landscape.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/doi.org\/10.59490\/jhtr.2025.3.7387<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n