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A rant on John Scalzi's blog about supposedly "legitimate" businesses who are using genAI for business communications. And also about the myriad scammers/fraudsters out there using genAI for scams/fraud.
Just for shits and giggles (and because people in the comments under the article were also doing it [EDIT] at least until Mr. Scalzi asked them to stop [/EDIT]), I just put into Google a prompt (yes, not a search, but a straight up prompt) of "Give me a good, angry rant about why it's bad to ask genAI to write for you."
Here's what I got back, complete with unasked for suggestions at the bottom. (Edited for formatting, because apparently you can't copy/paste from Google's AI bullshit without it ruining that, since the "paste" part just puked a giant block of unformatted text into my DW post edit window here. Anyway, any bolding and italics here is from the AI, not me, at least after I reinserted the html for it):
AI Overview
Relying on genAI to write strips away the vital human spark in communication. It churns out soulless, homogenous sludge, robs you of your authentic voice, and completely short-circuits the critical thinking skills required to actually develop and articulate a genuine idea.
Here is exactly why outsourcing your writing to a robot is a terrible idea:
As a bonus, "AI Mode" gave something slightly different, so here's that, too, for explosive diarrheas and guffaws (again, edited for formatting, and also including the unsolicited suggestions at the bottom):
Here is why outsourcing your writing to generative AI is a complete disaster for your mind, your voice, and your soul.
So, yeah, that's what Google's own search results AI Overview thing and the AI Mode thing """""think""""" about allowing a genAI to write for you. I wonder which sources it stole all that from, because it didn't site anything at all, in either case.
Just for shits and giggles (and because people in the comments under the article were also doing it [EDIT] at least until Mr. Scalzi asked them to stop [/EDIT]), I just put into Google a prompt (yes, not a search, but a straight up prompt) of "Give me a good, angry rant about why it's bad to ask genAI to write for you."
Here's what I got back, complete with unasked for suggestions at the bottom. (Edited for formatting, because apparently you can't copy/paste from Google's AI bullshit without it ruining that, since the "paste" part just puked a giant block of unformatted text into my DW post edit window here. Anyway, any bolding and italics here is from the AI, not me, at least after I reinserted the html for it):
AI Overview
Relying on genAI to write strips away the vital human spark in communication. It churns out soulless, homogenous sludge, robs you of your authentic voice, and completely short-circuits the critical thinking skills required to actually develop and articulate a genuine idea.
Here is exactly why outsourcing your writing to a robot is a terrible idea:
- It’s a creativity killer: Writing isn't just a way to record thoughts; it's the actual process of figuring out what you think. When you hand the keyboard to an LLM, you are robbing yourself of the cognitive heavy lifting that sharpens your arguments and births original ideas.
- The output is aggressively mediocre: GenAI doesn't create; it calculates probabilities. It stitches together the most predictable, middle-of-the-road word combinations imaginable. You end up with soulless corporate jargon or aggressively generic prose that screams, "I put zero effort into this."
- It butchers your authentic voice: Your unique perspective—your humor, your personal anecdotes, your specific cadence—is exactly what makes your writing engaging. AI flattens all of that into a robotic, homogenized mush. You lose your identity in the text.
- It’s a massive credibility trap: Relying on a machine to do your thinking makes you dangerously susceptible to "hallucinations." If you don't care enough to do the research, you're going to publish blatant falsehoods and confidently cite made-up facts because the AI lied to you and you didn't know the difference.
- It destroys genuine connection: Good writing is about human connection. We read to understand each other. The moment an audience realizes they are consuming a synthesized regurgitation of data rather than an authentic human perspective, they mentally check out.
- Help you brainstorm angles for your piece to get your own ideas flowing
- Give you strategies to overcome writer's block so you can start drafting
- Proofread your own human-written drafts to polish your authentic voice
As a bonus, "AI Mode" gave something slightly different, so here's that, too, for explosive diarrheas and guffaws (again, edited for formatting, and also including the unsolicited suggestions at the bottom):
Here is why outsourcing your writing to generative AI is a complete disaster for your mind, your voice, and your soul.
It Breeds Intellectual Lazy Parasites
- Brain atrophy: Relying on a machine to think for you completely kills your ability to form original thoughts.
- Skill death: Writing is fitness for the mind, and you are letting an algorithm do all your heavy lifting.
- Cognitive decline: If you do not practice structuring arguments, your brain stops knowing how to do it.
It Produces Premium, Grade-A Sludge
- Homogenized garbage: AI text reads like a corporate training manual written by a committee of robots.
- Soulless filler: It uses 500 words of passive-aggressive corporate speak to say absolutely nothing of substance.
- Hallucinated nonsense: The machine does not know facts; it just guesses the next most likely word.
You Are Evaporating Your Unique Voice
- Zero perspective: The AI has never bled, never cried, and never stayed up late laughing with friends.
- Plagiarized average: You are publishing a blended smoothie of the internet’s most mediocre, stolen text.
- Erase yourself: Every time you hit "generate," you delete a piece of your own unique human perspective.
It Is the Death of Real Connection
- Insulting lazy: Sending an AI-generated email or letter tells the recipient they are not worth your time.
- Trust destruction: Readers can smell the synthetic, overly polite AI syntax from a mile away.
- Endless echo: We are drowning in a sea of automated content where robots write things for other robots to read.
- Pivot this into a polished op-ed instead of a raw rant.
- Break down the specific linguistic tells that reveal text is AI-generated.
- Write a counter-argument on how to use AI ethically as a brainstorming tool without letting it write for you.
So, yeah, that's what Google's own search results AI Overview thing and the AI Mode thing """""think""""" about allowing a genAI to write for you. I wonder which sources it stole all that from, because it didn't site anything at all, in either case.
