It's All Slop
AI is Annoying: A Manifesto? A Rant?
I check my email—an excuse to take a break from editing—and open a few newsletters from friends I love and whose work I respect.
It is not the relief I hope for.
I sigh as words and phrases jump out at me aggressively, over and over: “It wasn’t this. It was that.” Everything is “deeply” something. Everything “hits different.” “It’s not just x. It’s also y.” “Not because x. Not because y. But because z.”
Inane metaphors and unfinished sentences. Writing tics normalized, magnified by sheer volume and artificial willpower. Emptiness wrapped in pretty words. Em—dashes—on—steroids—.
And everyone is starting to sound like everyone else.
As a writer, I find this upsetting. (See, I wanted to write ‘deeply upsetting’ but now that AI has usurped the phrasing, I don’t want it anymore!) I worry that we are forgetting that the purpose of creating is in the creative act, and not (only) the product.
A world of robotic, sales-oriented word soup sounds like a terrible, and imminent, place.
Of course, I appreciate the convenience of AI support as much as the next communications professional. I don’t believe every newsletter or social media post needs to be a work of profound creative expression, either. An instant writing assistant who never sleeps and doesn’t require a paycheck is, of course, dangerously seductive.
The tech itself fascinates me, as do the philosophical questions it raises about consciousness, humanness, and the nature of reality in a post-Truth world.
I am not anti-AI so much as I am annoyed.
As an editor, I’m especially fed up. Use your toys, but don’t be so lazy that you leave those fresh tracks all over the page: “Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.” ALL CAPS HEADERS. Endless bulleted lists. Emojis.
I don’t want to read newsletters, Instagram captions, or even posts in WhatsApp groups anymore. It’s all AI fingerprints. It’s all slop. It’s all converging towards a mind-numbing sameness that seeps into our vernacular and cheapens our real, human-to-human communication.
Did you know AI is changing the way we speak?
I don’t need more content. I don’t need more convenience.
I need words to burn on my tongue and singe the page. I need ugly and imperfect words, shockingly profound and profane words and everything in between.
I need to create because it is the thing that most makes me human and alive and real to myself.
In the act of creating—and we are all creative, make no mistake—I forget for a moment to ponder the conundrum of a post-truth existence. Because there, in flow, doubt dissolves; deeper than deep, I touch the sandy bottom.
So go ahead, use your tools, but (and I say this with all my love), please take me off your mailing list.
Hey, on the topic of creating because that is just what we humans do, this seems like as good a time as any to announce that I have written a second book (and my first novel) and that it’s going to be published!
It’s an honor to be working with Indigo River Publishing, where I also have the pleasure of editing other manuscripts.
Stay tuned for more, here, there and everywhere, as the journey gets going.
