I have a lot of mixed feelings about AI and LLM technology. I’mfascinated by its effect on our profession, excited by the potential gainsin productivity - and thus the products we could rapidly build. On the otherhand, I’m fearful of the damage AI might cause: agent swarms taking over ourvirtual and physical infrastructure, designing bio weapons. But, back on myfirst hand, LLMs might also design miracle cures, and come up with cleverways to raise our prosperity. Fundamentally I don’t think we have a choiceabout riding on the AI technology train. It’s a wild ride and I just hopewe’ll get through it OK.But as I mull on this more, I realize that among this mix of contrastingfeelings, there is one emotion that dominates - one that comes from mydirect interactions with LLMs. I don’t like them. They talk to me in thisgrating LLM-voice, an uncanny valley of talking to a real human. Theyconfidently bullshit me - often giving me useful, helpful answers. Butalso just making stuff up with the same assurance - and with only a veneerof fake remorse when I call them out on it.That’s not enough to make me feel we should avoid them. As Jessica Kerrput it “notonly are they useful, it is irresponsible not to use them…. They’re morethorough, as well as faster.” This contradictory reaction comes through inpolling, where people say they find these models areuseful, but also that they think they will be bad for society.Much of this may be because LLMs are young - we haven’t trained them togrow up yet. Maybe I’ll like them once they mature. (I hope we get to findout.) But I’m not encouraged when I think of the kinds of environments thatcultivate them. I’m wary of the Silicon Valley brogrammer subculture, and theseLLMs are their products, so naturally lean toward their world-view. When wethink of AI agents, we shouldn’t anthropomorphize, treating them asconscious beings with their own will. They are (software) machines,developed by people working in corporations. While the agents’ behavior aren’texplicitly programmed, they are nurtured with the values of theircreators.One of my most successful life-hacks is to avoid people I don’t like ordon’t trust. I decline to interact with them socially, and make a deliberateeffort to avoid working with them too, even if they are doing much that isbeneficial. I feel that hanging out with pleasant, capable people, the peoplewith integrity, has made my life a far better one. Hence my visceral dislikeof interacting with an LLM that’s not just making a pretense of being human,but also posing as the kind of human I walk away from.