Faced with a choice to take a shortcut promising quick returns over hard work and an uncertain outcome, I know which way the large majority of people will go. The question becomes whether individual effort will be sufficiently rewarded. I'd like to think so, but I would say that. Proudly human, for a while longer
It's an interesting dilemma we all face. I'm with you--my writing is part of my thinking brain. But the clerical work gets overwhelming, and I'm beginning to use pieces of bots to smooth it out. The book I'm offering helps wade through the process.
The whole debacle reminds me of the conversations I have with a friend who is a financial planner. When things trend or crash he basically just gets paid to help his clients stay in their chair instead of going out and buying or selling new investments in a frenzy. I trust human expression with every cell in my soul, and the fact that it will endure, and retain its value over time. Whatever happens with technology, boom or bust, I'll keep investing in strengthening the signal between my flesh and blood feeling and the words I choose to make visible.
I was in the software biz for years,too, and a youngish guy was asking me for advice because he's fresh out of school. I told him to pick up some bugs on Open source projects on GitHub and become a master bug killer, then sell himself as a fixer of AI-generated bugs, of which there are many.
Thanks for chiming in, Rick! I would never argue that philosophy. I believe in "be prepared" so I'm offering tips on just that! My attitude toward AI in general has moved over the past three years that I've studied it. I still know clearly that I, the human, am the wordsmith, but I see small spaces where these bots enable me to work smarter. I'll show you all how to consider the coming changes, and at the same time, I'm evolving too.
"When the internet becomes an even noisier environment saturated with generic, AI-generated text, it becomes exponentially harder for the signal of true expertise to cut through the noise." I have the hope this is all going to flip on its head and that the overwhelming amount of noise is actually going to make it easier to stand out with human generated words.
There will be/is a bubble. But some companies will survive, probably. Maybe. Possibly. Either way, I hope the worst case scenario is that writers self-label. We obviously can't trust that every writer will self-label honestly, but that is one way that reputations can form.
On Medium, I've been including a "Not written using AI' label for a few years now. I've used Grammarly for years to catch spelling errors. Its "suggestions" are generally stupid. I ignore them. And it really, really, really hates the word "really." I never got into the habit on Substack of labeling my work that way, but I think most of my readers are aware I don't use it.
The only use I see for generative AI in writing is for English as a Second Language students who can't afford in-person teaching, but I would hope they'll find a way to afford that ASAP, so as to avoid the awfulness of AI slop.
Will Lockett and Cory Doctorow have been documenting the AI bubble from a business standpoint during the past couple of years, but it's becoming more evident than ever during the last six months or so.
OpenAI recently seemed proud of itself when it said that the amount of power its upcoming data servers would consume could power all of Massachusetts. That is itself a bubble.
There are currently more than 50 lawsuits by content creators against various AI companies. Anthropic just settled one of the first ones — a $1.5 billion lawsuit (I have an article coming up about that soon).
Everyone gets to make to make their own decision about AI. I made mine a long time ago, and it's not going to change.
Thanks, Maryan, for the clear positioning on this.
Well said—and valuable insights, Charles. This ebook I’ve published is a culmination of three years of studying this tech, the laws, the suits, the writers, and the entire picture. I learned a lot!
I might be slow on the uptake. But I didn't get a point to this article. Don't use ai to assist in writng because a potential bomb will drop? Is this the gist of it?
How utterly disgusting... I know they're trying to use the Great Lakes for data centers, talk about watching ourselves self-destruct in slow motion. Using natural resources should be banned. They need to come up with another way to power it.
Point: There is a bubble about to burst that will change how AI is used. Being informed about what is happening right now and knowing how to leverage this tech is important to writers. The eBook has the full skinny..
This is interesting as a dyslexic I have used a version of a spelling and grammar algorithm since 2001. Now, these LLMs are doing a similar job although more and more they are offering different phrasing for a 'friendlier tone' or 'clearer voice.' I tend to be cautious about their suggestions. But I have used ChatGPT to go through some of my old wirting and notes to pick up interesting themes or sections I could use. Knowing that there might be a time when I will have to relie more on my own coding of my writing and maybe pay for a spelling and grammar checker again is good to know
I’ll show you how to exploit this tech without selling your soul or getting caught up in the hype cycle. There will be an ethical place in our world for AI assistance, but many people will drown in imitations. I like how you think. Stay tuned!
Nope, I won't succumb to AI use. And now I can tell when others use it. It's like a template, and at first I'd be saying (to myself) wow, they really are smart! Then I'd slowly realize they were using AI. Many people are using it now. I hadn't thought about the 'flooding the zone' which is also being used by some political parties of late. It is a total nuisance bc one has to decide which 'noise' to listen to. I'm just going to clunk along, writing my weekly posts, continue to stay on lookout for interesting topics that might interest my readers. And to hell with it, haha.
The scary thing about the pendulum is that it swings a little farther out every time this happens.
The extremes get a little more pronounced, the corrections become more damaging, and the stories become more painful to read...
And that's just without someone at the top obviously manipulating the whole thing for the benefit of a few.
Faced with a choice to take a shortcut promising quick returns over hard work and an uncertain outcome, I know which way the large majority of people will go. The question becomes whether individual effort will be sufficiently rewarded. I'd like to think so, but I would say that. Proudly human, for a while longer
It's an interesting dilemma we all face. I'm with you--my writing is part of my thinking brain. But the clerical work gets overwhelming, and I'm beginning to use pieces of bots to smooth it out. The book I'm offering helps wade through the process.
The whole debacle reminds me of the conversations I have with a friend who is a financial planner. When things trend or crash he basically just gets paid to help his clients stay in their chair instead of going out and buying or selling new investments in a frenzy. I trust human expression with every cell in my soul, and the fact that it will endure, and retain its value over time. Whatever happens with technology, boom or bust, I'll keep investing in strengthening the signal between my flesh and blood feeling and the words I choose to make visible.
I was in the software biz for years,too, and a youngish guy was asking me for advice because he's fresh out of school. I told him to pick up some bugs on Open source projects on GitHub and become a master bug killer, then sell himself as a fixer of AI-generated bugs, of which there are many.
Brilliant!!
Thanks for chiming in, Rick! I would never argue that philosophy. I believe in "be prepared" so I'm offering tips on just that! My attitude toward AI in general has moved over the past three years that I've studied it. I still know clearly that I, the human, am the wordsmith, but I see small spaces where these bots enable me to work smarter. I'll show you all how to consider the coming changes, and at the same time, I'm evolving too.
"When the internet becomes an even noisier environment saturated with generic, AI-generated text, it becomes exponentially harder for the signal of true expertise to cut through the noise." I have the hope this is all going to flip on its head and that the overwhelming amount of noise is actually going to make it easier to stand out with human generated words.
Yay! And we are the drivers who will make that happen!
There will be/is a bubble. But some companies will survive, probably. Maybe. Possibly. Either way, I hope the worst case scenario is that writers self-label. We obviously can't trust that every writer will self-label honestly, but that is one way that reputations can form.
I'm on your team!
I know! :-)
My publication description says, ". . . Never using AI. Ever."
Perfect
On Medium, I've been including a "Not written using AI' label for a few years now. I've used Grammarly for years to catch spelling errors. Its "suggestions" are generally stupid. I ignore them. And it really, really, really hates the word "really." I never got into the habit on Substack of labeling my work that way, but I think most of my readers are aware I don't use it.
The only use I see for generative AI in writing is for English as a Second Language students who can't afford in-person teaching, but I would hope they'll find a way to afford that ASAP, so as to avoid the awfulness of AI slop.
Will Lockett and Cory Doctorow have been documenting the AI bubble from a business standpoint during the past couple of years, but it's becoming more evident than ever during the last six months or so.
OpenAI recently seemed proud of itself when it said that the amount of power its upcoming data servers would consume could power all of Massachusetts. That is itself a bubble.
There are currently more than 50 lawsuits by content creators against various AI companies. Anthropic just settled one of the first ones — a $1.5 billion lawsuit (I have an article coming up about that soon).
Everyone gets to make to make their own decision about AI. I made mine a long time ago, and it's not going to change.
Thanks, Maryan, for the clear positioning on this.
Well said—and valuable insights, Charles. This ebook I’ve published is a culmination of three years of studying this tech, the laws, the suits, the writers, and the entire picture. I learned a lot!
I've no doubt it's a great read. And we know AI didn't write it, lol :-)
I might be slow on the uptake. But I didn't get a point to this article. Don't use ai to assist in writng because a potential bomb will drop? Is this the gist of it?
OpenAI recently stated that the amount of power its upcoming data servers would consume could power all of Massachusetts.
There are currently more than 50 lawsuits by content creators against various AI companies, including the recently settled Anthropic (Claude AI) case.
That bomb.
How utterly disgusting... I know they're trying to use the Great Lakes for data centers, talk about watching ourselves self-destruct in slow motion. Using natural resources should be banned. They need to come up with another way to power it.
Point: There is a bubble about to burst that will change how AI is used. Being informed about what is happening right now and knowing how to leverage this tech is important to writers. The eBook has the full skinny..
This is interesting as a dyslexic I have used a version of a spelling and grammar algorithm since 2001. Now, these LLMs are doing a similar job although more and more they are offering different phrasing for a 'friendlier tone' or 'clearer voice.' I tend to be cautious about their suggestions. But I have used ChatGPT to go through some of my old wirting and notes to pick up interesting themes or sections I could use. Knowing that there might be a time when I will have to relie more on my own coding of my writing and maybe pay for a spelling and grammar checker again is good to know
I’ll show you how to exploit this tech without selling your soul or getting caught up in the hype cycle. There will be an ethical place in our world for AI assistance, but many people will drown in imitations. I like how you think. Stay tuned!
Nope, I won't succumb to AI use. And now I can tell when others use it. It's like a template, and at first I'd be saying (to myself) wow, they really are smart! Then I'd slowly realize they were using AI. Many people are using it now. I hadn't thought about the 'flooding the zone' which is also being used by some political parties of late. It is a total nuisance bc one has to decide which 'noise' to listen to. I'm just going to clunk along, writing my weekly posts, continue to stay on lookout for interesting topics that might interest my readers. And to hell with it, haha.
A wonderful plan! I applaud you. However, I will say, I doubt anyone can say for sure what is written by AI and what isn’t. Even the bots can’t tell.
I agree that we can't tell what IS. But I think it's possible to detect what *isn't.*
Much better!
Ok, let’s just say an educated guess. Seeing the template, the bold subheads, the bullet points. And a different writing style, imho.
I use bold subheadings. I got the idea from SEO articles, not AI. They help with getting a page indexed
I wrote a short story about a federal agent who specializes in tracking down people with faulty conversational AI chips. :-)
Where can I read it? Someone very close to me is a Federal agent—I could see him doing that. :)
It's here on Substack:
https://www.ruminato.com/p/hijacked
Marked to read later today!
The bullet points--omg the bullet points! Anything those bots write is jammed packed with bullets.
Yes!