"The nu-blogging platform is an earnestly artisanal space where writers craft their stuff; subcontracting that to a bot seems like the acme of pointlessness. Will Storr, who writes about storytelling, examines this boggling trend and the tells that give it away on his own Substack, including a penchant for what he calls the impersonal universal: sweeping statements that sound deep but aren't. There is, he says, A white-noise generality to its insights, an uncanny vagueness that makes the mind glaze over."
"I'm baffled how anyone could enjoy using a large language model (LLM) to sound blandly clever or participate in any AI-hacked hobby. It doesn't matter much, I suppose this isn't AI as existential threat. But it matters for fun let the bots take our work, but not our joy! I wouldn't presume to tell anyone how to enjoy themselves I'm no expert on fun, and would definitely end up sounding like an AI-generated Substack if I did."
AI is being used to shortcut leisure activities, enabling people to solve escape-room puzzles and cheat at trivia nights, which spoils challenge-based amusement. Some readers use ChatGPT as a book-club replacement to aggregate opinions and perspectives, but such use can deliver unwanted spoilers for ongoing fiction. Substack and similar platforms are experiencing an influx of AI-generated essays that mimic artisanal writing yet often feel pointless and impersonal. A common tell of AI output is the impersonal universal—sweeping, vague generalities that produce white-noise insights and make the mind glaze over. Prioritizing live, communal activities like singing affirms human joy and resists mechanized blandness.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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