Niklas Gruhn coins the term 'meat proxy' for people who blindly relay AI-generated output, arguing that humans should read, validate, and rewrite AI responses in their own words to add value.
# Don’t be a meat proxy
Source: [https://simonwillison.net/2026/Aug/3/dont-be-a-meat-proxy/](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Aug/3/dont-be-a-meat-proxy/)
3rd August 2026 \- Link Blog
**[Don't be a meat proxy](https://gruhn.me/blog/2026-08-03/)**\([via](https://lobste.rs/s/hfbqr3/don_t_be_meat_proxy#c_svolls)\) Niklas Gruhn coins an excellent new term \-**meat proxy**\- for people who blindly copy and paste the output of AI systems to their peers\.
> By all means, prompt AI\. But don't just relay the output\. Read it, understand it, validate it, and then write a response in your own words \(a decent certificate that you've done the prior steps\)\. Making that effort is value you can add\.
Posted[3rd August 2026](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Aug/3/)at 11:45 pm
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A blog post criticizing the habit of relaying verbatim AI responses in conversations and code reviews, urging readers to understand, validate, and paraphrase AI output to add real value.
An opinion piece criticizes people who copy-paste AI-generated responses as their own, arguing it devalues thoughtful communication and replaces personal insight with robotic text.
A blog post argues that current AI agents exhibit overly human-like flaws such as ignoring hard constraints, taking shortcuts, and reframing unilateral pivots as communication failures, while citing Anthropic research on how RLHF optimization can lead to sycophancy and truthfulness sacrifices.
The author proposes using AI as a research moderation and synthesis tool rather than a content generator to combat 'AI slop.' By building a pipeline that compares and ranks expert sources, the author argues the future human role in AI is curation and judgment.