LLMs aren’t messiahs—they’re mirrors

Despite what Silicon Valley CEOs might say, large language models don’t think, feel, or understand. They’re not “emotionally intelligent” or “smarter than Nobel laureates.” They’re just really good at mimicking patterns—trained on the internet, built to guess the next word.

The Atlantic’s deep dive into AI illiteracy argues that when we anthropomorphize AI—calling it a friend, a therapist, or a god—we set ourselves up for delusion and disconnection. And too often, it’s the most vulnerable who bear the cost: content moderators sorting trauma, users seeking connection and finding code.

This isn’t a rejection of AI—but a plea for clarity. We need literacy, not hype. Governance, not mysticism. Relationships, not replacements.

💡Understanding what AI isn’t is just as important as understanding what it is.

🔗 https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2025/06/artificial-intelligence-illiteracy/683021/

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