A hot take on hot takes

I was thinking today about how LLMs return strongly-worded responses quickly, and whether that counts as a “hot take.” The origin of the phrase “hot take” is about as messy as most hot takes themselves, but the current definition refers to both the speed at which an opinion was produced and the level of provocation it contains.

While LLMs do respond quickly, and exude confidence in their replies, the content is almost by definition average; they seek to find patterns, connections, and consensus across their training data. Even when you prompt them to create hot takes, those are simply extracted and synthesized from existing opinions online.

For now, the hot take may be a uniquely human capability. If you want a provocative, counterintuitive opinion about something, ask a messy, human brain.

Personally I tend to aim for more of a “simmer take”–it takes a bit longer to build up the heat, but when it’s done there’s a bit more consistency to the texture. But I still appreciate a good hot take for getting conversation going.