Will LLMs lead to compounding ambiguity in communication?

· Bits and Bobs 9/2/25
  • Will LLMs lead to compounding ambiguity in communication?
    • There's value in shrouding a potentially controversial statement in load-bearing ambiguity to keep the upside while capping downside.
    • LLMs are great at taking a statement and expanding and making it more ambiguous.
      • "Take these 5 bullets and expand into an essay"
      • "Make this announcement sound less bad than it is"
    • LLMs are also great at reading between the lines in a long and ambiguous statement.
      • "Take this essay and give me the 5 bullet summary"
      • "Give me the straussian read of this corporate communication"
    • As more people use LLMs to produce more ambiguous communication, more people will need to rely on LLMs to decode it.
    • That could lead to a red queen race where communication is just as hard, but now LLMs are a required part of it.
    • An equilibrium of misery.
      • If you add another lane to a highway, it makes people's commutes for the same time able to go further, where they can afford cheaper / nicer houses, so they buy them, and then before you know it it's back to being as much traffic as it was before.

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