Member-only story
The Emotional Labor Machine
Using an LLM to subvert regressive ideologies
The more I learn about Large Language Models (LLMs), the less convinced I become that they are ever going to do much more than they already do. I have significant doubts that the fundamental architecture of a GPT model will ever achieve anything like Artificial General Intelligence, or that the possibility of generating nonsense will ever be truly eliminated. While there continue to be advances in the LLM products that are available, use cases remain pretty limited. At this point, it doesn’t seem likely that a GPT-based LLM will ever fully replace most of the work done by people.
But that doesn’t mean they aren’t useful.
This week, I was reminded of a use case that I played around with a few years ago: LLM as emotional labor machine. A friend was particularly impressed with this use, so I thought it might be helpful to give it a bit more of an in-depth write-up. So here it is.
A brief outline of the issues
Like many people, I’ve been thinking a lot about DEIJ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice) work recently. I have a hard time buying into any notion that suggests there’s anything problematic with any school of thought that seeks to extend the concept of basic humanity to a more diverse and…
