I'm Not Reading That
You're absolutely right! In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the way we create and consume content is undergoing a seismic shift — one that represents a pivotal moment in the broader conversation around authenticity. It's not just redefining what it means to write: it's fundamentally reshaping the very fabric of creative expression as we know it.
I'm so sorry you had to read that, but apparently an increasing number of people are not sorry to "write it". AI has brought the effort in manufacturing endless quantities of poetic slop down to nearly zero.
Everywhere you turn now there is another AI slop post to read. At this point we've almost all but removed the humanity from platforms like LinkedIn, if there was ever much there in the first place.
The issue with AI content is not that it inherently reads badly. It's that for all of its ability to produce elegant prose, it does so at the total expense of any actual meaning.
The most offensive part for me as a reader is that someone has produced content they themselves spent less time producing, with less original thought, than the reader they expect to engage. The disrespect of treating your reader to the output of your one-sentence prompt fundamentally undermines the purpose of sharing your thoughts in the first place. If you have something to say, say it. Don't let the AI speak for you. If I wanted to hear Claude's latest opinion, I'd ask it myself.
Of course we know why people resort to producing AI content: it's easy, and the goal is cheap engagement, usually to funnel you into some product or service. The irony is, when something has been so blatantly written with AI it actually just undermines everything you're trying to do. I, like so many others, simply disengage entirely.
The other issue with this, when everyone's feeding prompts into the same few models, you end up with a sea of content that all sounds identical. Millions of people publishing the same voice saying nothing. The whole point of putting your thoughts out there is that they're shaped by your experience, your perspective. Strip that away and what exactly are you contributing?
Now to be clear, I'm not talking about the odd use of AI to help rewrite a sentence or spellcheck - or even just for helping edit a draft. What I am talking about is the near wholesale production of AI slop. These tools are supposed to raise the bar, not lower it. Yes, your post looks beautifully written, but I'd frankly take the typoed, broken English version of a genuine novel insight over ChatGPT's perfectly polished "nothing" any day of the week.
I'm all for AI being used to boost productivity. There is absolutely a time and a place for it, but producing the content that is supposed to represent your thoughts and your expertise? That isn't it. If you've got nothing original to say, no amount of AI is going to fix that. Authenticity is the new order of the day.