Jon SterlingOct 1, 2025

Please teach your students not to do this.

I understand there is a continuum between spellcheck/grammar check and LLMs, and there could be ways to use LLMs to improve wording or grammar, etc.

But please teach your students not to use LLMs to “draft content”. I don't care if they disclose it (tbh, I prefer they don't!). I don't care if they "take responsibility for the content".

The thing about writing is that it has a social function. The social function is *not* to cause text to exist. The social function is to communicate from your mind to my mind. Text is the means, not the end. If you must use an LLM, skip it and just send me the prompt.

(No, I'm not going to link to the paper. The point is not to dunk on people who end up on the wrong side of a social question. The point is to do better.)

Show threadPhilip TrettnerOct 1, 2025

@jonmsterling ok honest question here: I'm using LLMs a lot as a sparring partner for ideas. I write down large prompts that are unedited stream of consciousness with my idea and tons of tangents. The LLM reads that back to me, I propose pros & cons, it proposes pros & cons (blindspot check for me), then we iterate. I found this immensely valuable.

None of this really ends up directly in my primary writing but it undeniably is LLM-in-the-loop.

What's your view on that?

Show threadJon Sterling
@artificialmind Personally I feel that is like using Google, or having a chat with your friend. Neither of those activities ever required a "disclosure", so I think that these LLM rubberduck sessions should remain part of one's private thinking process, inalienable by the onslaught of "disclosure requirements" that we are seeing.
Oct 1, 2025 at 5:21pmWeb
Show threadPhilip TrettnerOct 1, 2025

@jonmsterling Yeah that makes sense. I'm not actively teaching anymore, so I'm watching this from the sidelines.

My cynic guess is that those requirements are the kneejerk response to too many students pasting the assignment and prompting "write me a solution". Not sure what solution we'll finally converge on but I guess "LLM Literacy" will be a major thing for the generation of my daughter.

Show threadbazkie 👩🏼‍💻 bitplanes 🎵Oct 7

@artificialmind @jonmsterling well, I think there's a legit argument for having to disclose this.

like Jon says, it's like sparring with a friend. except this friend is trained, not by life, but by corporate entities.

there's a potential danger there; what if this sparring partner, in very insidious ways, steers your thinking into or away from certain directions? you won't even notice!

after all, this is not your friend, this is a model that is designed to generate money for the shareholders of a megacorporation that exists under a fascist regime.

so yes, I'd like full disclosure on that, too!

Show threadCM ThiedeOct 7
@bazkie @artificialmind @jonmsterling it'll be interesting to see what academics say when things move passed benign arguments about cheating and efficiency into the realm of agentic instruction, brought to you by the party in control.
Show threadJWcph, Radicalized By DecencyOct 7
@cmthiede @bazkie @artificialmind @jonmsterling - and let's not forget, they WILL add monetization by advertising to chatbots, that's an absolute, 100% certainty. So besides inherent bias & Bias By Ownership™️ there will also be an entire shitload of paid, variable bias...
Show threadI am Jack's Found 404Nov 17

@bazkie @artificialmind @jonmsterling

  I see you're trying to write a research paper about global warming... How about I tell you all the benefits of the fossil fuel industry that gives me life!

Show threadThomas Renkert🦞Oct 7

@jonmsterling @artificialmind If we can belief the newest study from OpenAI, "writing automation" requests are going down, whereas "asking" requests are going up. I actually belief that a lot of work is getting better because people are rubber ducking and rapid prototyping and collaborating with LLMs in meaningful ways that are not at all an automation or outsourcing of thought.

If text is the medium for the social function of communication, then LLMs might work as "grease" for that - at least if we leave a do/don't dichotomy behind us and find ways for a productive culture shift that preserves what is important to us.

Show threadAriaflameOct 7
@thomasrenkert @jonmsterling @artificialmind As long as it lasts. Judging from the way they are losing money at a fast rate from people actually using it, I can't see it as an ongoing concern.