---
title: "Reply to: The agentic passive voice | irrational exuberance"
url: https://perrotta.dev/2026/03/reply-to-the-agentic-passive-voice-irrational-exuberance/
last_updated: 2026-03-30
---


Will Larson:

> At some point, you will have learned about the passive voice, where the actor
> in a sentence is unclear. For example, my software didn't compile. That's a
> good example of the passive voice. However, you might not know the full set of
> rules, because here are some sentences in the passive voice that you might not
> recognize:
>
> - Claude made an error in my writeup.
> - ChatGPT messed up the commitment.
> - Gemini didn't write tests.
>
> You might think those are active sentences, but those are in fact examples of
> the agentic passive voice. The rule here is: whenever the actor in a sentence
> is a model, then it's a passive sentence. I'm sorry if your grammar instructor
> never taught you this rule, but this is just the way it works now.

Dear human,

Use LLMs as much as you want / need to, but own the responsibilities for its
actions and outcomes. No excuses.

"ChatGPT dropped the database" is not acceptable.

Who is controlling ChatGPT? Is it
[deviant](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1222140/Detroit_Become_Human/),
does it have self-agency?

In 2026 that's highly unlikely. If _you_ control the agent, then _you_ are
solely responsible for its actions.

"I dropped the database via an _accidental_ prompt in a coding agent".