On Stochastic Parrots

Thu, 14 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400

Call it whatever you want. Use it, if you want. Don’t tell me it’s art. Don’t tell me that I’m wrong for not using it.

I don’t think this is a very controversial take within artistic circles, but as someone who also works (well, worked…) in tech I get to see it forced into every nook and cranny of existence with the expectation that if you’re not using LLMs to do the majority of your work then you’re probably not employable right now.

First and foremost, if you’re using AI as any part of your writing process, from ideation through to a completed project, you don’t want to be a writer. You want to have written. Those are very different things. It is wanting the credit and benefit of completing something without doing the work.

I write because I have stories to tell.

I’ve had an interesting path to get where I am. I moved a lot when I was kid, attending eight different schools from kindergarten to grade 12. The people, places, and situations I’ve been exposed to are diverse and they are mine. Facets of that life come out in everything I write.

I write because I am compelled to write.

My mental and emotional health are correlated to my writing. The worst times in my life are the ones where I’ve stopped writing entirely. It may not be a causal relationship. If it is, the causal direction could go either way. In any case, when I’m writing I am a happier and more tolerable person to be around.

I write to create art.

Writing is gratifying to me. I’ve been in the room with writers who are grumbling and swearing at their keyboards. I’ve spent time talking to people that dread the next project. I don’t have that problem. I’m more than happy to lay down as many words as I need to so that I can come back later and find the pieces that are good.

I enjoy the process of working through the ideas in my head and wrangling them into something interesting and coherent. Discovering where all those pieces point. I want to create works where my voice, my intention, and craft all come together to create something that is more than just words on a page.

I want to share it with other people.

I want the works that I create to be able to take on their own meaning. I want people to read it and be able to extrapolate and apply their own meaning. I want my writing to convey my intentions and ideas better than I would be able to in conversation.

Having written feels great. There’s something wonderful in having something that you’ve created in front of you. An LLM can never fill the place that the process of writing occupies in my life. Since I don’t value expediency over everything else, it can’t offer me anything. It can only take pieces that are valuable to me away.

They are non-deterministic sycophancy engines. Their primary value (to their owners) is in keeping you glued to the chat window. As they’re non-deterministic it encourages you to keep feeding more and more prompts into the slot machine in the hopes that you hit that winning combination. It has endless patience and will encourage and compliment you while the slot machine hits feed you small shots of dopamine.

The more you interact, the more tokens you burn and the more data you provide for future models. The more dependent you become and, oh, aren’t you handsome and smart today.

If you want to write, then write. Otherwise, you’re probably not a writer and might be a gambler.

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On Stochastic Parrots