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

Philosophics — Philosophical and Political Ramblings · May 18, 2026 · 21m

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…