I recently generated a "plain English" document out of a huge technical spec, and steering this process was the main time sink.
Opus 5.5 will make broad changes in meaning and scope, but subtly. A human copy editor would at least pause before making claims unsupported by evidence (unless they're marketing); an LLM will happily fill in the gaps. Adversarial checks are helpful but have limits.
Unfortunately, I believe most people's command of written language is simply limited (including their native tongue), so they genuinely don't notice or care.
Using a copy editor in the way you describe is sensible, but I suspect many people will just do one pass and blindly apply every suggestion.
Opus 5.5 will make broad changes in meaning and scope, but subtly. A human copy editor would at least pause before making claims unsupported by evidence (unless they're marketing); an LLM will happily fill in the gaps. Adversarial checks are helpful but have limits.
Unfortunately, I believe most people's command of written language is simply limited (including their native tongue), so they genuinely don't notice or care.
Using a copy editor in the way you describe is sensible, but I suspect many people will just do one pass and blindly apply every suggestion.