Facing an...unusual...review for my PhD dissertation, I re-created their strangest argument nearly word for word and in the same order with my first one-sentence prompt to Copilot.

Head exploding.

@tootstorm
And here I thought that (one of) the problem(s) with LLMs was their non-deterministic output ;)
But on a serious note, that is very frustrating. I hope your mentors can help you find an good way to handle it.

@tootstorm
You may find it useful to refer to the ICMJE guidelines, which instruct reviewers to keep manuscript's confidential and forbid the use of AI by referees without permission. Why should dissertation reviewers have more latitude to use AI than journal referees?

https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/responsibilities-in-the-submission-and-peer-peview-process.html#three

ICMJE | Recommendations | Responsibilities in the Submission and Peer-Review Process

@tootstorm
And if your reviewer had paid attention to this part of the ICMJE guidelines
"Reviewers should be aware that AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased."
Maybe they would have fixed their LLM output, or done their review themself, and the problem before you would not have arisen!