“Shoggoth with Smiley Face”: Knowing-how and letting-know by analogy in artificial intelligence research

Abstract

This paper examines the fame of the Shoggoth with Smiley Face meme within the growing communities of AI research professionals and enthusiasts. Published on X at the end of December 2022, soon after the release of the ChatGPT model by OpenAI, the original version of the meme contributes to the popularization of the analogy between AI systems based on deep neural networks and the monstrous creatures called “shoggoths” of Howard P. Lovecraft’s horror fictional universe. The description of the evolution leads us to highlight two modes of analogical association between AI and shoggoths: letting-know by analogy and knowing-how by analogy.