The Social Contract of Writing
The rise of large language models (LLMs) is significantly impacting the writing industry, leading to concerns about the quality and originality of written content. Many authors are using LLMs for various writing tasks, which can result in homogenized and less engaging prose. This shift undermines the traditional social contract between writers and readers, where the expectation is that writers invest substantial effort in their work.
- ▪LLMs are increasingly used in writing across blogs, social media, and books, often for tasks like spell-checking and grammar correction.
- ▪The proliferation of LLM-generated text is leading to a homogenization of writing styles, making content feel repetitive and uninspired.
- ▪The use of LLMs violates the social contract between readers and writers, as it reduces the perceived effort that writers put into their work.
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The social contract of writing May 25, 2026 5 min read llm writing LLMs are making inroads into just about every industry on the planet, they’re everywhere now. AI for X, AI for Y, if there’s a thing that somebody is willing to pay for, there’s another person looking for a way to use LLMs to do it. But no human activity is becoming as dominated by LLMs as writing. It’s not that I can’t see the attraction of it as an author, especially where you feel a pressure to produce a lot of content. They’re very good at that, volume. I’ve experimented with LLM assisted writing in the past (nowadays I don’t even use them for spell-checking).
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