Can You Really Put on Blinders If You Know There May Be Adverse Effects of Your Actions? • Christian Tietze
We chose at the outset to limit our focus to the personal and professional implications of LLMs on Recursers, since that’s what we’re knowledgeable about. You won’t find positions or pontification in this post on energy usage, misinformation, industry disruption, centralization of power, existential risk, the potential for job displacement, or responsible training data.
That’s not because we don’t think discussion of any of these issues has merit (it does) but because we think it best to remain focused on the areas closest to our expertise and that are core to our business, and to avoid those that are more inherently political. While the broader societal questions are still being debated, every programmer here has to answer the question of whether and how best to use LLMs in their work during their time at RC.
Asserting that something is a question for experts, and that consequently you’re off the hook, doesn’t make it so. Sometimes, you’re not in power to decide.
