So I’ve been thinking recently about some of the implications of the ongoing LLM-ification of the world, and there are some interesting issues which may arise in the near future, if they have not already happened.
Currently, the unedited output from LLMs cannot be copyrighted. This is as it should be, considering the vast number of copyrighted works which were used to train the LLMs, without adequately compensating the original creators. Works which are derived from LLM output may be copyrighted if there is sufficient provable human input into the final product. [NOTE: review this situation in relations to copyright of derived vs. original works in traditional creative output.]
A recent consequence of the rapid adoption of LLM tools by various businesses is that insurance companies are using “AI Exclusion” clauses in their coverage contracts. This means that the insurance companies will not cover harm caused by the output of LLMs. This is a very good thing, as it will necessarily limit the amount of work which a company can shift to LLMs from their human employees.
But companies will not stop using LLMs in place of human workers. So it is more likely that companies will require humans to “sign off” on LLM-generated ideas and content, and present it as their own. Of course this will not improve the quality of the LLM output; it will just shift the blame when things go off the rails. The companies which do this will certainly add sub-clauses to their binding arbitration agreement to which employees must agree as a condition of employment.
To sum up: Corporations which are heavily invested in LLMs will soon be in need of Judas goats for signing off on the output of LLMs, and scapegoats for bearing the brunt of the inevitable blow-back. It’s nice work if you can get it.
Reading
I just reached the end of the beautiful The Essential Neruda, a bilingual edition published by City Lights. I will close out the month with the Fall 2026 issue of Peninsula Poets, a publication of the Poetry Society of Michigan. This month has been poetry-intensive, in a very good way.
Writing
As this post goes live, I am probably sitting on my porch with the cats, working on yet another draft for the Hello, Future! time capsule project. The organizers extended the deadline by two weeks, which means two more weeks of procrastination. Yay!
Tomorrow is the first day of That November Thing, the annual month of writing which our local writing group organized to take the place of National Novel Writing Month when the NaNoWriMo organization imploded a couple of years ago. I would be very surprised if I have, at the time this post goes live, decided what my project will be.
Weekly Writing Prompt
Subject: Apocalypse, Undead
Setting: Space
Genre: Folk Tale
Listening
“Do You Compute?” by Donnie Iris, from his 1983 album Fortune 410. Iris (born Dominic Ierace) died on Monday at the age of 83.
Interesting Links
- “Ugly Milkshake Duck” (Rafe Meager) – Long (7,500 words) essay on the ideologies underpinning the vast and eager acceptance of fascism in the United States specifically, and the world in general.
- “Oligarchs and Elections, the Endgame: Control Without Accountability” (Rob Urie, The Journal of Belligerent Pontification)