The LLM Witch-Hunt: The Myth of the Pristine Mind

In this philosophical essay, Bry Willis argues that the current moral panic surrounding artificial intelligence is a misplaced attempt to blame technology for human psychological vulnerabilities. He suggests that society has created a scapegoat out of large language models to avoid admitting that people have always been susceptible to manipulation, long before chatbots existed. The author highlights the hypocrisy of regulatory institutions and industries, such as advertising and social media, which have exploited these same cognitive weaknesses for decades without similar outcry. By framing AI as an external "villain," Willis contends that we are merely preserving a false myth of human rationality and sovereignty. Ultimately, the text posits that the perceived threat of AI is actually a reflection of our own nature, asserting that the true source of the problem lies within the human subject rather than the machine. 👉 https://brywillis634737.substack.com/p/je-maccuse-on-saccuse