Tuesday Tastemaker #51:
What did we talk about before AI?
Happy Tuesday, Reader.
I read something on Instagram this week that really grinds my gears:
“If you use emojis anywhere in your content, I will stop reading because they tell me AI wrote it, not you.”
AHEM, no.
You know how *I* can tell if AI wrote something? Because of the quality and timbre of the writing itself. There’s something ineffable about real writing that AI just sort of… can’t do.
But that also means it’s hard to pinpoint and explain. In any case, it has nothing to do with little tics like em dashes, or emojis, or whatever the next thing will be.
For a while there, I reluctantly started adding spaces to my em dashes — like this, even though it’s grammatically incorrect — because I felt pressure to stop using them the proper way—which is this.
But now, AI DOES THAT TOO, because AI mimics what humans do. Humans love the em dash, and now humans put spaces around their em dashes, so this whole conversation has come full circle and now it doesn't matter anymore.
Let's say we stop using emojis now, too, because they’re an AI “tell.” All that means is that pretty soon, AI will also stop using emojis—and then what? The wheel weaves as the wheel wills. 🤓
Changing everything about the way we write, twisting and contorting ourselves into arbitrary stylistic conventions imposed on us from a poorly understood and underutilized piece of technology…
yeah. You can miss me with that.
The other part of this, the part that really depresses and infuriates me, is this:
What happens when AI gets so good at writing that you can’t tell anymore?
Because despite all those earnest LinkedIn posts about the irreplaceable value of human writing (all penned by writers, of course), that day is absolutely coming, and if you think it’s not, you’re in denial.
I don’t have a problem with the existence of AI. Or with writers, designers, and anyone else who wants to experiment with it and see what it can do.
I do have a problem with it being forced down everyone’s throats before we’ve had a chance to properly educate ourselves and understand how it works, so we can make an informed decision about how or if it fits into our lives.
And I definitely have a problem with the current power coup in America right now and what implications that might have for the health and well-being of our society, and the fact that our “secretary of education” calls it “A-1” like it's steak sauce.
What I absolutely don’t give a shit about is whether or not someone will dismiss my writing as “AI” just because I like to use emojis.
🖕🏽🖕🏾🖕🖕🏿🖕🏾
Yep. I skipped an entire week of emailing you—two, almost!—right in the middle of a launch.
If that’s not tearing the fabric of the space-time continuum that is the online marketing world… I don’t know what is. 🤯
And you know what? I don’t care. I have my reasons.
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