Very good stuff about writing with AI and "unseeing" things. For my own part I've treated AI much like Wikipedia, you can get a mass amount of information fast but there is definitive ratio of having to parse back through it and making sure its my words not its and so forth that pretty quickly gets into the "not worth it" decision matrix. My own little test was feeding some older published works which it kept insisting was written by someone else, which was interesting and hilarious and illuminating. The AI apologized, I called it the motherless child of an upjump toaster, great fun was had by all. All the AI models want to please the user, and pleasing the user is death to a creative writing process. I have no doubt the editorial process will be AI intensive before too long - if it isn't already- so incumbant on the writers/creators to decided the folks and AI tools they want to work with. I, too, think there is going to be a sloshing effect as AI tries to replace everything then another sloshing as that doesn't work/pushback from it. Best we can do is just do good work and let if fall where it falls, and keep our bearing doing so.
That's fascinating and I think you're 100% right. And of course if you take what you just suggested to its logical conclusion what happens is more people using AI to generate more writing, which AI that uses as a basis in large language models to generate more writing so that everything gets homogenized and then fed back to the humans like the gray goo feed in the movie the matrix. I used to think this process would leave the genuine humans in an advantageous position because we would stand out. But if market forces make it impossible to avoid AI contamination, then the Advantage disappears and everyone becomes part of the Grey goo
This is where being the parent of young adults and being in community college right now makes even harden cynic like me hopeful: The kids have a much better radar for AI/grey goo and already have a dislike of it and have a difference feel for it because it is their natural ecosystem. It’s going to be ok, and the kids knowing the difference while us olds worry about it makes me believe
One thing I've been noticing a lot on substack recently is the phrase "let that sink in", imported from X. Or the author uses equivalents like, "sit with that for a minute.", "please take note", "pay attention here", and so on. I wonder if this is a tell of AI use.
Absolutely! I think that's exactly what it is. Another telltale sign is a formulation saying "it's not X, it's Y." of course reframing is a traditional writing technique, but the AI version is Lieb, standalone, and often nonsensical if you really think about it
Very good stuff about writing with AI and "unseeing" things. For my own part I've treated AI much like Wikipedia, you can get a mass amount of information fast but there is definitive ratio of having to parse back through it and making sure its my words not its and so forth that pretty quickly gets into the "not worth it" decision matrix. My own little test was feeding some older published works which it kept insisting was written by someone else, which was interesting and hilarious and illuminating. The AI apologized, I called it the motherless child of an upjump toaster, great fun was had by all. All the AI models want to please the user, and pleasing the user is death to a creative writing process. I have no doubt the editorial process will be AI intensive before too long - if it isn't already- so incumbant on the writers/creators to decided the folks and AI tools they want to work with. I, too, think there is going to be a sloshing effect as AI tries to replace everything then another sloshing as that doesn't work/pushback from it. Best we can do is just do good work and let if fall where it falls, and keep our bearing doing so.
Totally. Which is why all of these tech executives keep getting booed at commencements.
That's fascinating and I think you're 100% right. And of course if you take what you just suggested to its logical conclusion what happens is more people using AI to generate more writing, which AI that uses as a basis in large language models to generate more writing so that everything gets homogenized and then fed back to the humans like the gray goo feed in the movie the matrix. I used to think this process would leave the genuine humans in an advantageous position because we would stand out. But if market forces make it impossible to avoid AI contamination, then the Advantage disappears and everyone becomes part of the Grey goo
This is where being the parent of young adults and being in community college right now makes even harden cynic like me hopeful: The kids have a much better radar for AI/grey goo and already have a dislike of it and have a difference feel for it because it is their natural ecosystem. It’s going to be ok, and the kids knowing the difference while us olds worry about it makes me believe
One thing I've been noticing a lot on substack recently is the phrase "let that sink in", imported from X. Or the author uses equivalents like, "sit with that for a minute.", "please take note", "pay attention here", and so on. I wonder if this is a tell of AI use.
Saw one just now: “Just sit with that for a moment.”
Another one that doesn't show up in writing but makes me laugh every time I get it from an AI: "that's a power move, Matt."
Another one: Read that twice.
Absolutely! I think that's exactly what it is. Another telltale sign is a formulation saying "it's not X, it's Y." of course reframing is a traditional writing technique, but the AI version is Lieb, standalone, and often nonsensical if you really think about it