This was a deep breath of fresh air! I find the proliferation of AI slop on this platform — and the effusive praise it receives — wildly deflating, particularly since Substack is the only social media I’m using right now (besides Letterboxd). It’s so bad that even folks I genuinely believe wrote their piece unassisted are STILL using the stilted cadence, the line breaks between each sentence, and the “it’s not x, it’s y” contrastive negations. So even the holdouts are absorbing this bullshit by osmosis.
There have always been clout chasers who care far more about being perceived as a writer than actually writing, but now they have these powerful tools and a decaying cultural landscape to bolster them. My only hope is that genAI becoming rampant accentuates the spiritual dimension of true creativity, and thus its actual value, because genuine artists will never stop working no matter how bad this gets. We just have to hold the line until this mass delusion wanes. I just hope I live to see it.
Aria!!!!! <3 <3 <3 Substack is, sadly, the social platform I check least because I wish it wasn't a social platform, haha. Absorption by osmosis is very true and a sad state of things.
I hope to live to see it, too, and I have a feeling we will! Being perceived as a writer is the biggest joke out of all of this, as if there is any glamour to what we do. (Most of the time it's torture, I think, but an exercise that can feel so good and rewarding once done right.)
Maybe a book club newsletter next month...stay tuuuuuned :D
Listen I’m trying to follow your lead, only distance can protect us from the onslaught of slop!
This culture is obsessed with visible output, and suspicious/dismissive of unseen transformations. People look at skilled swimmers or guitarists and say “Wow, that’s amazing! I could never do that!” Then they look at skilled writers and actors and say, “Whatever, I could have done that.” Our crafts are wholly internal so the better we are, the more “effortless” it looks. Why not use a tool that makes it actually effortless? If nothing else, I hope this moment makes us more curious about the processes that create meaningful art.
Bleeds is such a good album
This was a deep breath of fresh air! I find the proliferation of AI slop on this platform — and the effusive praise it receives — wildly deflating, particularly since Substack is the only social media I’m using right now (besides Letterboxd). It’s so bad that even folks I genuinely believe wrote their piece unassisted are STILL using the stilted cadence, the line breaks between each sentence, and the “it’s not x, it’s y” contrastive negations. So even the holdouts are absorbing this bullshit by osmosis.
There have always been clout chasers who care far more about being perceived as a writer than actually writing, but now they have these powerful tools and a decaying cultural landscape to bolster them. My only hope is that genAI becoming rampant accentuates the spiritual dimension of true creativity, and thus its actual value, because genuine artists will never stop working no matter how bad this gets. We just have to hold the line until this mass delusion wanes. I just hope I live to see it.
Also I’d totally join your book club! 👋🏾
Aria!!!!! <3 <3 <3 Substack is, sadly, the social platform I check least because I wish it wasn't a social platform, haha. Absorption by osmosis is very true and a sad state of things.
I hope to live to see it, too, and I have a feeling we will! Being perceived as a writer is the biggest joke out of all of this, as if there is any glamour to what we do. (Most of the time it's torture, I think, but an exercise that can feel so good and rewarding once done right.)
Maybe a book club newsletter next month...stay tuuuuuned :D
Listen I’m trying to follow your lead, only distance can protect us from the onslaught of slop!
This culture is obsessed with visible output, and suspicious/dismissive of unseen transformations. People look at skilled swimmers or guitarists and say “Wow, that’s amazing! I could never do that!” Then they look at skilled writers and actors and say, “Whatever, I could have done that.” Our crafts are wholly internal so the better we are, the more “effortless” it looks. Why not use a tool that makes it actually effortless? If nothing else, I hope this moment makes us more curious about the processes that create meaningful art.
Absolutely staying tuned 📚
Love love love all of this even if AI is so depressing