The Devil Inside
When Using AI Goes Upside-Down and Sideways
I recently ran into a post on X, one which absolutely stunned me. In it, the guy was bragging about a new AI program he is using, and the fact it literally does all his work for him. This ‘work’ included creating a news brief, generating three YouTube scripts, and writing his next newsletter.
Seriously, he had an AI bot write his own damned newsletter!
I was sickened. As a writer, having a soulless ‘program’ write these words for you would be (from my perspective) not only unethical, but borderline criminal. As I do occasionally utilize AI both here on Substack and on Ko-fi, however, people deserve to know how, when, and why.
Therefore I have decided to break that down, so readers are aware that - while I use certain tools to make this the best I can - the words themselves are mine. Indeed, the final result of every written work I post is 100% mine, based entirely on my efforts. Nothing writes anything for me.
Here you go…
1) When I write an essay I write every word, entirely on my own. No AI-generated text whatsoever, unless you count corrections recommended by spell-check, which is - at least technically - ‘artificial intelligence’.
2) Due to the challenges involved with self-editing / self-proofing, once I complete an essay I will occasionally enter it into Grok and have her (I utilize Ara, hence the pronoun) read it back to me, word-for-word as I wrote it.
I do NOT ask Ara to ‘analyze’ the work, nor to make editorial suggestions of any kind; listening to the read-back is usually enough for me to check for missing and/or repeated words (although I still miss one from time to time), which is the only thing for which I need it.
3) As you undoubtedly have already ascertained, I utilize AI to create the cover-art for each drop, along with (unless otherwise noted) any images inserted into it. I have documented my use of AI in this capacity in previous essays; see below for more.
And THAT is the extent of my use of AI. After reading the above-mentioned post by the guy who is having a bot write his newsletters for him, I wanted to make sure how I approach my own written work here (and every-where) is crystal clear.
I do it myself.
Support My Work
Subscribe for free, and get drops like this. Grab a paid sub, and you’ll get drops like this, exclusive updates, and (if a paid annual subscription) lifetime access.
Or swing by my Ko-fi page, “The Stone Age.” Follow me there for unique content, stop by the new store, and/or drop a coin or two in the proverbial tip-jar.
Thank you for reading, and for your support.
And The ‘More’…
Here is a segment from the essay The Image Generation; text in brackets are additional notes added for this posting…
So why do I use AI imagery? To do what I can to create the best possible product for my subscribers. As Substack is a business based on quality [at least it USED to be], and that we live in a culture centered around excellence (theoretically, at least, although Ayn Rand’s ‘aristocracy of pull’ seems more prevalent these days), my job is to offer readers the highest-quality experience I can give them.
The writing is always the first priority, of course, but the visual aspects cannot be ignored. In a writer’s Utopia every success would be based entirely on the words through which they sweat, but - as with every Utopia - that is not the reality. The Internet is both a text-based and visually-based environment (some might even include ‘sound’ in the mix, but that’s a different discussion), and you must address both aspects to satisfy your readers.
Nature of the beast.
If you wish to read the full article…
So, by definition
“Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.”
So, if someone uses AI to compose their newsletter and they put their name on it, they are technically guilty of plagiarism. Key words OWN ORIGINAL WORK.
man, if i had a bot do everything for me, I'd get bored so fast... Where's the long-term satisfaction in that?