AI has changed the way we look at the time = effort equation.
It used to be that (short of some creative copy + paste efforts) anything you read was written by the human presenting the text. But now, AI engines like Chat GPT can amalgamate existing writing to appear as if it were written by a person. Often in impressive prose and extensive length. But there is a devaluing of the human exchange here, as it still takes the reader’s time to read that writing. Human time.
So I regularly feel short-changed when I read something (even if I initially enjoyed the information I read) if I learn in the aftermath that no one actually wrote it. The conversational tone and colloquialisms peppered throughout are just token, when they are not the words of the writer.
There is a hybrid here, wherein a writer will use an AI text generator to lay a framework and then they edit and embellish that base to then create the final piece of writing. But that leaves me feeling pretty uninspired. Because not only was the beginning of that voice not theirs, it was more than likely someone else’s. Someone that spent their time to write it.
It is capitalism and commercialisation creeping into the creative process. To feed the insatiable content beast. To keep up with the social demand for presence, I understand why many have leant on this technology. Unfortunately, the by-product of doing so is a hollow, inauthentic voice.
This is the way of online stuffs. I can’t change how others do it. But I can continue with how I do it. So I make this pledge for everything I write and make.
YOUR TIME is valuable. So know that if you spend your valuable time to read what I have written or drawn or made, know that I spent MY TIME to write, draw or make it.
Real human exchange.
philHASSAN 