AI training is updated on Nigerians and Kenyans.

Reply to AI training is updated on Nigerians and Kenyans. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:50:11 GMT

michael@westergaard.social — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:50:11 GMT

People complaining about the way LLMs write are often shit writers. LLMs write the way they do because of the texts they are trained on. The "not just A but B" pattern and em-dashes are useful for compactly and elegantly communicating complex thoughts.

But most people don't write complex thoughts – heck, before the internet, most people barely wrote at all after reaching adulthood, so LLMs are trained on books and academic sources. Sources that contain different language from what is used by the average person and therefore seems strange.

If LLMs had more reddit in their training body than scientific articles, we'd dismiss any half-thought referring "updoots" or "doggy" or "good sir" as slop. Which we probably should anyway.

Reply to AI training is updated on Nigerians and Kenyans. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 13:57:29 GMT

slotos@toot.community — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 13:57:29 GMT

@davidgerard

> It was the Queen's English, the language of the colonial administrator, the missionary, the headmaster. It was the language of the Bible, of Shakespeare, of the law. It was a tool of power, and we were taught to wield it with precision.

Reply to AI training is updated on Nigerians and Kenyans. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 13:55:07 GMT

hakona@im.alstadheim.no — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 13:55:07 GMT

@davidgerard I spotted a typo .
"The machine [...] accidentally replicated the linguistic ghost of the British Empire."
Marvellous essay, poignant even, I'd say.