me_irl

I can write a solid 10 page well-researched paper out of a library in two weeks. With the internet, I can write that same paper with even better research in one week. With AI tools, I can write that same paper with better readability, conciseness, and overall editing in a couple days.

The difference is that, despite you knowing how to reach the end goal, someone who doesn't understand any of what you do could match your output of "a couple days" in 3-4 days' time. It cheapens the value of actually understanding what you're talking about. Using LLMs might feel more immediately productive, but in the long term it's diluting the skill pool, making it harder to distinguish between deep and shallow knowledge, and allowing (the idea of) merit-based priority to land upon those who don't deserve it more often than it already does (not that I believe our society is largely merit-based anyways).

Sure, the knowledgable can get a lot more done in less time, but the unknowledgable can more easily pretend to be knowledgable, and that technical debt will accumulate heavily over time.