“Risk” vs. “Risk” vs. “Risk”: Why AI Arguments Fail Before They Even Start

Inigo Montoya once said, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Ask members of the AI Triad if they want to reduce “risk.” They will all nod like bobbleheads. Everyone agrees!

Except… not really. They are completely, fundamentally talking past each other.

  • The Safetyist thinks risk means human extinction.
  • The Accelerationist thinks risk means the economic cost of falling behind because a regulator made them fill out forms.
  • The Skeptic thinks risk means big tech companies quietly writing the rules to entrench their own monopolies.

Same word. Three completely different realities.

Humpty Dumpty said it best: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”

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LLM Models Are Bullshit Engines

Your LLM System Doesn’t Have to Be

Harry Frankfurt wrote a wonderful essay called On Bullshit. His central move is a distinction most people miss: the difference between a liar and a bullshitter.

The liar cares about the truth. He has to. Truth is what a liar wants to conceal, and you cannot conceal what you have not first located. Lying is a truth-tracking activity performed in reverse.

The bullshitter doesn’t care about the truth at all. Not for it, not against it. Truth is simply not a variable in his function. His goal is to persuade, to impress, to manage how he is perceived. Whether the words happen to be true is incidental.

That’s an LLM model.

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