Measurement’s Post

Spreadsheets replaced Human Computers, will LLMs replace Human Creators? It’s rare to hear about the role of “human computers” today. Human computers were people tasked with executing extensive, often repetitive, calculations by hand. These calculations were essential for a variety of fields such as budgeting and finance. Human computers worked with tools like slide rules, logarithmic tables, and mechanical calculators to perform tasks that are now easily performed by spreadsheets. It was extremely labor-intensive and time-consuming. Nobody misses those days. For a long time it was believed that art required people that had a spark of ingenuity. It was considered a sacred domain where the human touch, intuition, and creativity are irreplaceable. But art is mostly mundane, repetitive tasks done by hand. Painting, filming, and writing—mixing colors meticulously, capturing multiple shots for the perfect scene, or even writing and rewriting to find the perfect turn of phrase—are not immune to automation. LLMs threaten to expose that. Creating a piece that resonates with people and evokes an emotional response can be done step-by-step using time-tested methods from past works. LLMs can absorb a vast library of human-generated art, understand the patterns, styles, and techniques, and generate new material in an instant. If a machine can calculate complex equations better than us, what stops it from painting an evocative scene or writing a compelling story? Perhaps we should see the spreadsheet as a useful analogy for how LLMs will be adopted. Similarly to how we evolved to work with spreadsheets, we will also evolve to work with LLMs to create art. One thing we do know for sure is that it will remove the manual grind behind our work. And, somehow, we will find something else to replace it.