Debate: LLMs are made of human writing but experience time, identity and death differently
qualadder · x · 2026-09-26
A debate on whether LLMs are "human-shaped": qualadder argues that while LLMs are built from all human writing, they aren't human-like beings — they experience time, identity and death entirely differently.
ctjlewis counters that "aliens" language is fine for stressing non-human qualities, but it's equally valid to stress human-shaped qualities since LLMs aren't a disjoint population. The conclusion: bucketing properties as human or non-human is fine, but asking whether they're "overall" more human is too abstract to answer.
Related event: Debate Reignites Over Whether LLMs Are 'Human-Shaped'(2 posts)→
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