Given the increasingly heated online chatter, including some outright witch-hunts, that have been happening about authors and their use of Large Language Models (LLMs, often imprecisely called “AI”), and given the fact that I am relatively open about my use of LLMs in some statements, I think it best if I go ahead and issue the below formal statement about my use of such models.
Philosophy
I am exquisitely aware of, and extremely concerned about, the ethical issues surrounding use of LLMs. They are many. Studies have shown that more and more written material generated solely using LLMs is being released into the marketplace. LLM usage has also been linked to loss of critical thinking and learning among students, is known to be error-prone and sycophantic, is often of poor quality, and, perhaps worst of all, often involves the use of models that were trained using improperly and even illegally obtained data.
Let me be clear: these are not minor issues, and I do not see them that way. However, I also feel that a significant part of today’s climate and attitudes about LLMs, particularly with respect to the online and literary communities, have gone to the opposite extreme.