Economist John Horton Calls 'Stochastic Parrots' a Midwit Concept; Mollick Slams AI-Can't-Manage Slide
soumitrashukla9 · x · 2026-10-19
Economist John Horton proposed a list of 'upper-midwit concepts' including Bullshit Jobs, POSIWID, and stochastic parrots — not as dumb as the 'AI uses all the water' lower-midwit take, but still pseudo-profound airport-book material.
Quoted context: Ethan Mollick vented about the recurring CSAIL slide claiming AI can't make management decisions, noting automated systems already make them constantly (trading, logistics, customer service, insurance) and pretending otherwise launders responsibility.
More from AGI Musings
- AI is the ultimate vendor lock-in: a developer's workplace observations — mapehe808 · 2026-10-19
- DHH vs François Chollet: On Inventing the Future vs Believing It Into Existence — manosaie · 2026-10-19
- Investor Stewart Alsop: You Are in a Recursively Self-Improving Dyad With Your AI — StewartalsopIII · 2026-10-19
- Autoresearch democratizes getting results, not doing better research — a PhD student's warning — manosaie · 2026-10-19
- Data centers use just 0.85% of global primary energy, by the numbers — DarinFeinstein · 2026-10-19
- LLM optimizer tuning is planning, argues rebuttal to 'planning is overrated' — HanchungLee · 2026-10-19