Synthetic Genres: Expert Genres, Non-Specialist Audiences, and Misinformation in the Artificial Intelligence Age

Drawing on rhetorical genre studies, we explore research article abstracts created by generative artificial intelligence (AI). These synthetic genres—genre-ing activities shaped by the recursive nature of language learning models in AI-driven text generation—are of interest as they could influence i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of technical writing and communication Vol. 55; no. 2; pp. 163 - 189
Main Authors Mehlenbacher, Brad, Balbon, Ana Patricia, Mehlenbacher, Ashley Rose
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.04.2025
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Artificial intelligence
Learning
Mental Age
synthetic genres
misinformation
science communication
artificial intelligence
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Summary:Drawing on rhetorical genre studies, we explore research article abstracts created by generative artificial intelligence (AI). These synthetic genres—genre-ing activities shaped by the recursive nature of language learning models in AI-driven text generation—are of interest as they could influence informational quality, leading to various forms of disordered information such as misinformation. We conduct a two-part study generating abstracts about (a) genre scholarship and (b) polarized topics subject to misinformation. We conclude with considerations about this speculative domain of AI text generation and dis/misinformation spread and how genre approaches may be instructive in its identification.
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ISSN:0047-2816
1541-3780
DOI:10.1177/00472816231226249