Except that there are such things as speech writers, whose job is literally to write prose in the voice of the person who’s going to read it.
And there are countless other jobs out there where people are the “voice” of another party. From those who manage social media presence, to PR firms, to copyrighters, all who put statements out on others behalf.
There was already an industry of professionals whose job it was to have others write things on our behalf, and that existed long before LLMs were a thing. What LLMs did was make that that service available much more cheaply.
Speech writers do not write in the voice of someone else, they create the public image of say a president who is inarticulate and make them seem polished and articulate, if anything they lend their voice and ideas to someone else. That’s why they are hired.
And no LLMs are not producing ‘the same thing’ as a speechwriter. If you are unable to tell the difference I’d suggest doing some a lot more reading of human books. LLMs produce stultifying pablum without coherence or style.
> Speech writers do not write in the voice of someone else, they create the public image of say a president who is inarticulate and make them seem polished and articulate, if anything they lend their voice and ideas to someone else
Nope. The exact opposite in most cases. Eg Jon Favreau (Obamas speechwriter) has said:
“As a speechwriter, your ego has to take a backseat. The goal is to make the speaker sound like the best version of themselves, rather than to showcase your own cleverness."
> And no LLMs are not producing ‘the same thing’ as a speechwriter.
I didn’t say it was the same. I said it was an existing industry that AI has stepped into and AI is taking the low end of market.
It’s just like how AI has captured the low-end of many tech roles too.
> If you are unable to tell the difference I’d suggest doing some a lot more reading of human books.
“Some a lot more”? Very ironically timed editing error there. You can bet an LLM wouldn’t have made that mistake ;)
Re speechwriters, he’d never get another job if he didn’t say that.
AI has replaced neither full tech roles nor speechwriters.
I think that’s a good example of the kind of trivial error humans make all the time when not rereading/editing. When humans make mistakes, it’s usually that kind of mistake, which IMO doesn’t really matter in an internet comment.
Unfortunately LLMs make gross errors of style and content and often just don’t make any sense in long form text. That’s a very different category of error.
Speech writers and shadow writers in general are writing on behalf of other people, but they're not writing the same thing. They can't! Usually they're writing something better, with the proper voice and authentic to the views of the person, but still not the same as what they would have written.
Depends on the individual. It’s usually a highly collaborative process. But in general, you’re correct that you’d expect a good writer to write better than the person who hired them.