Systems programming the model
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 17676015 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tyler Shoemaker (Texas A&M University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-19 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | AI & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0951-5666 • E-ISSN: 1435-5655 |
| Publisher | Springer Nature (PUBLISHER • SG) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s00146-026-02897-y |
| OpenAlex | W7138908372 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 29 |
This paper examines the status of the language model object in generative AI, arguing that what we call a ‘model’ is inseparable from the systems deploying it. I first theorize how these objects emerge from systems-level interactions between trained artifacts, prompting mechanisms, and sampling methods, drawing on the philosophy of digital objects as well as software studies to show how models gain their objective character. Such interactions converge on programming, not prompting, language models, and I illustrate how critical code studies can therefore track these dynamics. In an overview of language model programming approaches, I discuss how prompt and program converge, demonstrating how this confluence tends toward the production of new feedback loops wherein models become models of and for themselves. Understanding these feedback loops is essential in view of recent efforts to infrastructuralize AI, in which multiple models cascade into compound systems that abstract toward a unified model of models. Thus the need, I argue, for a systems-level view that can address this new order of abstraction and complexity by identifying where and how the model emerges from the system
Abstraction · Code (set theory) · Generative grammar · Modeling language · Object (grammar) · Programming paradigm · Software system · Digital Humanities and Scholarship · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Language and cultural evolution · Software
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |