[viccis]

>You could say that LLMs are the first technology where the medium actively invites confession.

I don't think LLMs really constitute a medium by McLuhan's definition. A medium is an extension of man, and LLMs don't extend so much as they replace. An LLM is closer to a secretary or similar force multiplier than an extension of oneself.

[Waterluvian]

I think it absolutely is a medium based on his big picture idea of how the way we consume information influences us. A TV series or a web search or a university lecture or an evening in the stacks all deeply influence how we might study a subject and in what ways the facts take hold within us. An LLM query or “conversation” is a distinct sibling to those. And a secretary is a medium.

[viccis]

His idea of media wasn't about "the way we consume information", it's about each medium's ability to extend parts of ourselves. For example, a light bulb is a medium he gives as an example, as it extends our vision. He considers money a medium for extending work and skill.

>And a secretary is a medium.

Not in McLuhan's use of the word. His examples are all pieces of technology that extend our senses; another person helping you do something is not a medium.

I'm not saying you are wrong about the word "medium" in general, but simply that McLuhan had a very specific usage of the word that is not the same as the lay meaning and includes things like light bulbs, numbers, and money. The more modern usage of the word to generically refer to sources of information is very different. In that sense, AI is media insofar as it's feeding us content and information, but it does not meet the specific (and more interesting IMO) definition McLuhan put forward in Understanding Media. Obviously, others can and will disagree with me there, but I simply don't view LLMs are an extension of our thought. Things like the internet, encyclopedias, the education system, etc., are McLuhan-esque media of thought extension, whereas LLMs actually serve the opposite purpose. They abridge rather than extend it by doing it for you.