What LLMs can and can't do for writers, with Clara Collier of Asterisk Magazine

Patrick McKenzie is joined by returning guest Clara Collier, editor-in-chief of Asterisk Magazine, to discuss how working writers and reporters actually use LLMs. Patrick walks through the machinery behind his recent SPLC reporting, including "parallel construction" with LLMs: when sources can't go on the record, models can surface public confirmation of the same facts in unguarded podcast interviews, press releases, and prepared remarks. They also cover why the best smoking gun sat unnoticed on the coalition's own Twitter account, the David O. Selznick theory of the corporate memo, and where hardball politics in a democracy ends and crimes begin.

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Full transcript available here: https://www.complexsystemspodcast.com/llms-and-writers-with-clara-collier-of-asterisk-magazine/

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Links:

• Complex Systems on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@patio11podcast
• Asterisk Magazine: https://asteriskmag.com/

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Preview

(00:51) Intro

(01:16) How legacy media feels about LLMs

(05:02) Writing as thinking: why the byline matters

(08:51) LLMs as feedback partners and simulated readers

(12:39) The future of the corporate memo

(15:58) Sponsor: Mercury | MongoDB

(18:30) Memos, de-skilling, and thinking on paper

(20:02) David O. Selznick's memos and the MrBeast production doc

(23:28) Can models introspect on their own work?

(30:06) Sponsor: Chainguard

(31:27) The SPLC investigation

(37:07) Chains of evidence and protecting sources

(45:20) Parallel construction with LLMs

(49:41) Mining podcasts for unguarded admissions

(59:35) Deepen your strengths, don't just patch weaknesses

(1:03:34) The smoking gun the LLM missed

(1:04:48) Hardball politics versus crimes

(1:10:48) Why a payments newsletter reported a political story

(1:16:19) Reporting stories that will be weaponized

(1:20:24) The tech right and internal company politics

(1:23:44) Debanking discourse and drawing distinctions

(1:30:21) Hate speech, social sanctions, and owning decisions

(1:34:51) Wrap