The discipline of taste in knowledge work (e.g., substance) was diluted before LLMs in "some" industries.
Taste, like value + service + quality + performance somehow became subjective, personal preferences and/or veiled mediocrity.
All is “not” lost because ironically, think LLM’s unforeseen consequences will ground humans back to delivering products/services people want + need, bring back the genuine joy of knowledge pursuit for some, and refine people’s tastes.
Let’s hope it grounds and yes—it was pre conditions and amplifications of data only approaches. Orgs need to invest in knowledge management and that investment and transition has not really happened yet
I haven’t read any of the references you cite, and I’m not familiar with their authors—or only vaguely so—with the exception of Bourdieu, whose book « The Logic of Practice » I had read, but your article is one of the best I’ve read on the veracity and quality of information provided by language models.
There could, however, be a shift toward personalization beyond both “the average” as the default mode and collective confirmation bubbles—for example, through new forms of continuous RLHF tied to usage—which, incidentally, would be no less dangerous nor trivial.
By the way, I remember attending a conference on data visualization in Paris in 2012 where a speaker presented one of the first fitness trackers in France for self-monitoring, and I suggested that it wouldn’t promote autonomy, but my comment wasn’t very well received :)
I still don’t wear one actually, although I sometimes think I could collect some little measurements :)
Thanks, Marc—re: the research shared in citations. Every paper and book, were great reads with well founded theses and extended insight. Totally recommend perusing some of the sources.
I agree that there’s opportunity for innovation in developing taste moderating and mediating—extending curation and judgement. Assisted by AI or not
Since I suppose you don’t have a chip in your brain yet for having read all those books and magazines overnight for this new article, you have a huge memory !
Hi Marc-Henri, my friends and I have come to exactly same conclusion. A Ms Talisman GPU (with a fully integrated Knowledge Graph TM) would be highly sellable and a necessary commodity for us all to .navigate and communicate in our modern and VERY confusing world. 🤠🦋
The problem is that she is probably still unique. So, would cost a lot... But it should be added quickly here that a second copy could be a Mr. Talisman because otherwise we will run into trivial considerations that only concern contemporary humans.... Hope she will forgive us, and particularly you
Oh—haha, no chip. Some of the resources I read months ago. I have a huge collection of papers and books:)
These essays are excerpts for the book I’ve been writing for over a year now. And that one book has become two books. First book will be released hopefully in Fall 2026!
Or we generally think its all acceptable as long as benchmarks are met. If AI generated content pulls towards the means or average, we drown in a sea of average. Which is quickly becoming the Web—lots of average, homogenous content much of which cannot be verified for truthfullness.
The discipline of taste in knowledge work (e.g., substance) was diluted before LLMs in "some" industries.
Taste, like value + service + quality + performance somehow became subjective, personal preferences and/or veiled mediocrity.
All is “not” lost because ironically, think LLM’s unforeseen consequences will ground humans back to delivering products/services people want + need, bring back the genuine joy of knowledge pursuit for some, and refine people’s tastes.
Let’s hope it grounds and yes—it was pre conditions and amplifications of data only approaches. Orgs need to invest in knowledge management and that investment and transition has not really happened yet
Agree.
I haven’t read any of the references you cite, and I’m not familiar with their authors—or only vaguely so—with the exception of Bourdieu, whose book « The Logic of Practice » I had read, but your article is one of the best I’ve read on the veracity and quality of information provided by language models.
There could, however, be a shift toward personalization beyond both “the average” as the default mode and collective confirmation bubbles—for example, through new forms of continuous RLHF tied to usage—which, incidentally, would be no less dangerous nor trivial.
By the way, I remember attending a conference on data visualization in Paris in 2012 where a speaker presented one of the first fitness trackers in France for self-monitoring, and I suggested that it wouldn’t promote autonomy, but my comment wasn’t very well received :)
I still don’t wear one actually, although I sometimes think I could collect some little measurements :)
Thanks, Marc—re: the research shared in citations. Every paper and book, were great reads with well founded theses and extended insight. Totally recommend perusing some of the sources.
I agree that there’s opportunity for innovation in developing taste moderating and mediating—extending curation and judgement. Assisted by AI or not
Since I suppose you don’t have a chip in your brain yet for having read all those books and magazines overnight for this new article, you have a huge memory !
Hi Marc-Henri, my friends and I have come to exactly same conclusion. A Ms Talisman GPU (with a fully integrated Knowledge Graph TM) would be highly sellable and a necessary commodity for us all to .navigate and communicate in our modern and VERY confusing world. 🤠🦋
The problem is that she is probably still unique. So, would cost a lot... But it should be added quickly here that a second copy could be a Mr. Talisman because otherwise we will run into trivial considerations that only concern contemporary humans.... Hope she will forgive us, and particularly you
Oh—haha, no chip. Some of the resources I read months ago. I have a huge collection of papers and books:)
These essays are excerpts for the book I’ve been writing for over a year now. And that one book has become two books. First book will be released hopefully in Fall 2026!
All my support for this enterprise...I'll soon know someone famous :)
You’re a part of that blush fame! Thank you for ideas and helping with my writing! Questions inspire thought
Very nice of you, thanks a lot
And the truth remains: All the money* in the world cannot buy good taste.
*"money" = AI models trained by AI-generated content.
(Or something like that? Still workshopping that one.)
Hey Jo—
Or we generally think its all acceptable as long as benchmarks are met. If AI generated content pulls towards the means or average, we drown in a sea of average. Which is quickly becoming the Web—lots of average, homogenous content much of which cannot be verified for truthfullness.
Agreed. That is a more astute way of putting it.