The Model Lies — the Contractor Leaves

The model lies to us — we stop trusting each other.

Competence edges

At the edge of its knowledge a model does not say “I don’t know” — it generates confident text into the void. The problem is that such edges — competence boundaries — exist for both the model and for you. And they do not overlap.

Where the model is incompetent, it lies. Where you are incompetent, you do not notice the lie. At the intersection you take its lies and forward them — to a plumber, a supplier, a partner. As your own.

Trust as currency

I pay you — you deliver. All business communication is built on this. All of capitalism, really.

Model-generated text forwarded without review breaks that rule. The counterpart does not know you used a model. They see a letter under your name where the facts do not add up. One such letter — and they quietly write you off as a crank: they double-check everything you send and stop taking you seriously. There will be no scene — you are already offstage.

Checking people with a model

It works in the other direction too. A plumber’s or a supplier’s answer now gets checked with a model. Where the model hits its competence edge, it confidently refutes the correct answer — and the person who told the truth looks like a liar. That is how young people learn not to believe the people they work with.

The filter before sending

Between the model’s output and the Send button there must be you:

1. Every fact — from the primary source. Not from another model, not from memory.
2. If you cannot defend it out loud — do not send it. If the counterpart calls and asks “where did you get this number?”, and all you can say is “the model wrote it” — you gave away your own competence.
3. Do not edit — rewrite. Model text after cosmetic tweaks still reads like machine text. Only a complete retelling in your own words actually works.