alt Hacker NewsI really did like the author's framing there, but I think there is a different, simpler way to put it:
Why would you think that asking someone else (that is, another human) to write something (and then reviewing it) is the same thing as writing it yourself?
You may trust the other writer's opinions and knowledge, but it will not have the same tone, structure, word choice, understanding, or narrative flow as it would if you were to write it yourself.
And when it's an LLM, you should not trust it's "opinions" and "knowledge", because it does not have either of those things. The appearance of those things is just that, an appearance.
Replies
There's knowledge in books, and it's ingested all the books, so it does hold knowledge. But I guess that's not how you mean it.
Except that there are such things as speech writers, whose job is literally to write prose in the voice of the person who’s going to read it.
And there are countless other jobs out there where people are the “voice” of another party. From those who manage social media presence, to PR firms, to copyrighters, all who put statements out on others behalf.
There was already an industry of professionals whose job it was to have others write things on our behalf, and that existed long before LLMs were a thing. What LLMs did was make that that service available much more cheaply.