Big Data Discourses| Ask Me Anything! ◕‿◕ - How ChatGPT Got Hyped Into Being

This study reconstructs how chatbots like ChatGPT got hyped into being. It dissects the actors and dynamics that triggered, fueled, and disseminated the hype. Through the lens of hype studies, the article interrogates three empirical realms: (1) company websites where the chatbots are presented, (2) blog entries and newspaper interviews by prominent tech figures from Silicon Valley, and (3) New York Times articles. The study shows how chatbot hype is driven by a dynamic between privileged actors (hypers) and a media frenzy, both influencing and being carried by the public and politics alike. The following different interdependent building blocks in the chatbot hype are identified: (1) strategic ignorance—depicting large language model chatbots as knowledge models, (2) the weird and eerie—panicking about the uncanny side of chatbots, (3) the battle—staging a spectacle of competition among tech giants, and (4) crossing the line of the normal—praising the dualism of an apocalypse or a tech-religious calling. The article unravels the core circulated narrative that turns the hype into a powerful societal phenomenon.