My thoughts on LLM usage

Published 2026/02/06

Heads up this one is an opinion piece.

These is my thoughts and feelings at the date of publishing. These thoughts and feelings might change and they don't have to be yours.

Edit (2026/07/29): I've removed most of this post as I was too kind on the clankers (see git history for the original). Pretty much all my "best case" usecases for them have failed. I don't currently see a future where LLMs are useful which isn't a dystopian hell hole. Though I still think the final section of the post is valid so I've left it here

The thing that scares me the most about the widespread adoption of LLMs to summarise, edit and create text is the way in which it likes to convert everything into a standardized phrasing and formatting. This paves over nuance and careful consideration, making everything sound like it's been written by an overenthusiastic middle level manager.

Documentation, stories, opinions, code, as soon as an LLM is introduced into the mix, even if it's just as an external aid, it influences the writer and the audience and everything starts to slowly homogenize towards the LLM's voice.

Thus none of my content on this blog, mastodon or code on Codeberg/GitHub ever has been nor is ever going to be created or edited with an LLM. With the exception of directly quoting an LLM such above.

The best defence we have right now against AI homogenization is disclosure. If you use LLMs in any capacity to create a piece, please disclose it. That way at least your audience is somewhat aware that it is the voice and reasoning of an LLM and not of a human.