Evoking Promethean Shame – Exploring Emotional Reaction to AI Systems

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the concept of Promethean Shame in the context of artificial intelligence (AI) usage and cooperative work with AI. Promethean Shame, termed by philosopher Günther Anders, refers to the experience of being confronted with human-made technology that outperforms human abilities. Understanding whether the concept influences perception towards AI is a crucial factor in creating effective human-AI collaboration. To assess participants’ experience of Promethean Shame and analyze if the experience is influenced by AI use, a pre-post comparison study was conducted. Participants were asked to complete a text-correction task with the help of a Large Language Model-based chatbot. A questionnaire was used to assess multiple interaction factors before and after the task. Results indicate no significant change in Promethean Shame before and after the interaction as well as weak to moderate correlations to other concepts like trust and perceived intelligence.