Guns Don't Kill People: on co-authoring an essay with LLMs
The author reflects on the process of co-authoring an essay with large language models (LLMs), exploring how LLMs challenge traditional notions of authorship by contributing to writing in ways that blur lines between tool and collaborator. The essay examines the implications of this collaboration for creativity, agency, and the meaning of "writing."
Background
- The essay (titled "Guns Don't Kill People") was co-authored by the human writer and two large language models (LLMs) — Claude and an unnamed model — to explore what happens when a human deliberately enters a "collaborative" writing process with AI.
- The author argues that the phrase "guns don't kill people, people kill people" is a useful analogy for LLM criticism: blaming the tool (the AI) for harmful outputs obscures the role of the human who prompted, directed, and deployed it.
- The piece reflects a growing debate in tech and creative circles about agency, authorship, and accountability when using generative AI — whether LLMs are neutral tools, active co-creators, or something in between.
- The URL (bios.net.za) is the personal site of a South African writer and technologist, adding a non-US, non-Silicon-Valley perspective to the AI discourse.