I’ve become very fond of the word “delve” since LLMs popularized it and Paul Graham cluelessly dissed what is in fact a nice little African (Nigerian iirc) contribution to language via training data. Beyond being a great running joke at PG’s expense, it’s actually a good word for a lot of what I do, so I’m glad LLMs via PG have nudged me into using it more. I look forward to more such fun mutations to my written voice by LLMs.

A little-noted feature of LLMs is that they’re blending global English usage idiosyncrasies in interesting ways, the way television newscasts blended regional accents into “accents from nowhere.” LLMs aren’t making written voices boring anymore than the spread of “accents from nowhere” has made people duller. Your interestingness is a function of what you’re saying, not your accent. If you’re attached to your written or oral “accent” as a source of identity or as a judgment filter for others, you’re going to have an increasingly bad time in the future. You’ll miss a lot of interesting things because it’s not spoken or written “right” for your chauvinistic tastes.

The standard leftie analysis of the “delve” phenomenon is that it is appropriation via cheap data tagging labor. There’s an element of that of course, but the bigger, more positive story is that LLMs have actually jailbroken all languages with a big digital footprint from regional cultural hegemonies. And done it well, without loss. For example I don’t see unwieldy Indian English patterns in normal chatgpt output but if I prompt specifically, it reproduces the idiom well, though with an annoying level of “respectfulness” lobotomizing. It’s a bit like how most big metros worldwide now offer all global cuisines at passable or better levels if you want them, but also global and local standardized fare. A situation I vastly prefer to exclusively “local” food everywhere.

I’m guessing there are Indian contributions like “delve” too, not via training labor, but via the sheer amount of Indian English online. Something equivalent to accent neutralization will happen in written voices in the next decade, and those who resist will be sitting out natural language evolution and will sound increasingly archaic. Decline to delve into this phenomenon at your own risk. Pearl-clutch about homogenization and you’ll miss new evolutions and diversifications.

I really like this type of cosmopolitan leveling effect. I have no talent for accents, so when I landed in the US, I didn’t try to acquire an American accent beyond picking up a few patterns or altering a few specific word pronunciations that confused people. So now I have a true accent-from-nowhere. Some combination of Indian, standard tv British, and tv + midwestern American. Similarly, as a vegetarian, I really appreciate the growth of cosmopolitan food culture, so I don’t have to eat the local idea of “vegetarian” (godawful in most meat-centric cuisines).

This is all good stuff happening it. You don’t have to trust me, just delve for yourself.

theguardian.com/technol…