> LLMs aren’t built around truth as a first-class primitive.

neither are humans

> They optimize for next-token probability and human approval, not factual verification.

while there are outliers, most humans also tend to tell people what they want to hear and to fit in.

> factuality is emergent and contingent, not enforced by architecture.

like humans; as far as we know, there is no "factuality" gene, and we lie to ourselves, to others, in politics, scientific papers, to our partners, etc.

> If we’re going to treat them as coworkers or exoskeletons, we should be clear about that distinction.

I don't see the distinction. Humans exhibit many of the same behaviours.