Comment by xpe

> Just as I don't need to understand the finer points of extreme bigotry to be opposed to it, we don't need to be experts on LLMs to be opposed to the well-heeled and breathless hype surrounding it, and choose to not engage with it.

If by the last "it" you mean "the hype", then I agree.

But -- sorry if I'm repeating -- I don't agree with conflating the tools themselves with the hype about them. It is fine to not engage with the hype. But it is unethical to boycott LLM tooling itself when it could serve ethical purposes. For example, many proponents of AI safety recommend using AI capabilities to improve AI safety research.

This argument does rely on consequentialist reasoning, which certainly isn't the only ethical game in town. That said, I would find it curious (and probably worth unpacking / understanding) if one claimed deontological reasons for avoiding a particular tool, such as an LLM (i.e. for intrinsic reasons). To give an example, I can understand how some people might say that lying is intrinsically wrong (though I disagree). But I would have a hard time accepting that _using_ an LLM is intrinsically wrong. There would need to be deeper reasons given: correctness, energy usage, privacy, accuracy, the importance of using one's own mental faculties, or something plausible.