Article
The Human Is the Model: Prior Knowledge as the Determinant of LLM-Augmented Reasoning
Bayesian inference begins with a prior. The quality of the posterior is bounded by the quality of the prior. So is the quality of every answer you accept from a language model.
- Published 2026-04-25
- Author: Yves Ketemwabi Shamavu
- Topics: LLM, Bayesian, Cognitive Science, AI Safety, Epistemics
Overview
A short essay arguing that human-LLM interaction is structurally analogous to Bayesian inference: the user supplies the prior, the model supplies likelihood-like text, and the quality of the posterior is bounded by the quality of the prior. Synthesizes findings from cognitive psychology, human-computer interaction, and AI safety.
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Key themes
The article focuses on LLM, Bayesian, Cognitive Science, AI Safety, Epistemics. The complete in-app essay expands on the engineering tradeoffs, implementation details, and practical lessons behind the topic.
- LLM
- Bayesian
- Cognitive Science
- AI Safety
- Epistemics
- Human-AI Interaction