From TFA: "Eric Schwitzgebel writes that . . . There’s a huge cognitive difference between nodding along while reading something and actually productively generating a text. Two reasons: First, once the text is on the page, it’s easy to passively let the approximate word suffice, rather than thinking about word choice in the same effortful, active way we do when generating prose de novo. Second, as I suggested above, I doubt that human beings, even experts, have a good sense of all the factors that shape word choice -- everything they’re being sensitive to. You would have phrased it slightly differently, and even if you don’t know that, or why, a different signal is sent and received."
This is the best articulation I've seen of why simply reviewing and copy-editing does not provide remotely the same value as writing from scratch. I spent a considerable amount of time over the past two weeks reviewing and improving a work document that was the output of an LLM. Given the number of people involved and the final level of effort, I'm firmly convinced that writing it manually would have been faster and resulted in a higher quality product. Getting the wording right matters.
I 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.
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.
Speech writers and shadow writers in general are writing on behalf of other people, but they're not writing the same thing. They can't! Usually they're writing something better, with the proper voice and authentic to the views of the person, but still not the same as what they would have written.
Depends on the individual. It’s usually a highly collaborative process. But in general, you’re correct that you’d expect a good writer to write better than the person who hired them.
patrickmay · · focus · HN ↗
This is the best articulation I've seen of why simply reviewing and copy-editing does not provide remotely the same value as writing from scratch. I spent a considerable amount of time over the past two weeks reviewing and improving a work document that was the output of an LLM. Given the number of people involved and the final level of effort, I'm firmly convinced that writing it manually would have been faster and resulted in a higher quality product. Getting the wording right matters.
kelnos · · focus · HN ↗
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.
hnlmorg · · focus · HN ↗
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.
strken · · focus · HN ↗
hnlmorg · · focus · HN ↗