Writer Martin Fowler describes an 'uncanny valley' reaction he gets when reading text that feels LLM-generated, even without obvious markers like em-dashes. He expresses skepticism toward AI-detection tools, arguing they miss the point since the discomfort is a human reaction that occurs before any tool verdict matters. Fowler advises authors to avoid drafting with LLMs or even accepting AI rephrasing suggestions, though he considers AI-generated outlines potentially acceptable.
martinfowler.com
· 2026-10-29
An opinion piece argues that while large language models have rapidly improved at generating code, their prose remains stuck in an 'uncanny valley' of clichéd, robotic language lacking real insight. The author contends AI labs have already pushed hard to improve writing quality but hit a wall, unlike image, voice, and video models that scaled quickly with more compute and parameters. The piece frames writing as a 'wicked problem' with no clear definition or objectively correct solution, making it resistant to the kind of brute-force scaling that worked for other AI capabilities.
muratbuffalo.blogspot.com
· 2026-08-31