New paper with IJoCPublished on 25.02.2026

How was Chat GPT hyped into being?

Dr.Bareis published a journal article with the title: Ask Me Anything! ◕‿◕ - How ChatGPT Got Hyped Into Being

The article is part of a Special Section of the International Journal of Communication on big data discourses and their societal implications. 

Big data discourses are integral to how we come to understand and engage with datafication. The Special Section, co-edited by Christian Pentzild and Charlotte K, explores the semantics of big data in contemporary society, weaving together three central themes: materiality, emerging technologies, and sensemaking around datafication. Across the contributions, the section interrogates how communication, imagination, and social practices shape—and are shaped by—the expanding landscape of data-driven innovation.

The article of Dr.Bareis dissects the actors and dynamics that triggered, fueled, and disseminated the chatbot 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.

A good summary of the argument can be shown with the following illustration: