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CIRCLE WITH A DOT

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  3. Thinking about AI controversies in writing, and all the cautionary instructions to not use em-dashes, or semicolons, or short sentences, so that readers don’t think your book is AI-generated, and… well, first of all, get knotted with that rubbish.

Thinking about AI controversies in writing, and all the cautionary instructions to not use em-dashes, or semicolons, or short sentences, so that readers don’t think your book is AI-generated, and… well, first of all, get knotted with that rubbish.

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  • antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA antonyjohnston@mastodon.social

    I know this because I’m a reader too. Every good author is. Reading is part of the job. And while I’m fortunate to call some of my favourite authors friends, there are many others whom I’ve never met and never will, yet have those same feelings of kinship and affection towards.

    antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA This user is from outside of this forum
    antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA This user is from outside of this forum
    antonyjohnston@mastodon.social
    wrote last edited by
    #7

    That trust is really all there is between us, all that matters. It influences your decision to pick up an author’s next book, or not. It might be the strongest influence there is on that decision.

    antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA 1 Reply Last reply
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    • antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA antonyjohnston@mastodon.social

      That trust is really all there is between us, all that matters. It influences your decision to pick up an author’s next book, or not. It might be the strongest influence there is on that decision.

      antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA This user is from outside of this forum
      antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA This user is from outside of this forum
      antonyjohnston@mastodon.social
      wrote last edited by
      #8

      You can’t buy trust. You can’t force it. You certainly can’t generate it with an AI prompt. And you can lose it in a heartbeat, as many have found to their cost.

      But when it exists, it’s what makes a reader pick up a book, confident they’ll enjoy it, without ever wondering whether or not the author actually wrote it.

      FIN

      waltman@hachyderm.ioW taatm@mathstodon.xyzT tedel@writing.exchangeT 3 Replies Last reply
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      • antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA antonyjohnston@mastodon.social

        You can’t buy trust. You can’t force it. You certainly can’t generate it with an AI prompt. And you can lose it in a heartbeat, as many have found to their cost.

        But when it exists, it’s what makes a reader pick up a book, confident they’ll enjoy it, without ever wondering whether or not the author actually wrote it.

        FIN

        waltman@hachyderm.ioW This user is from outside of this forum
        waltman@hachyderm.ioW This user is from outside of this forum
        waltman@hachyderm.io
        wrote last edited by
        #9

        @antonyjohnston One positive of all this is that folks wrote some excellent essays on how great writers have used em-dashes, and now I'm using them more than ever — take that, AIs!

        antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA 1 Reply Last reply
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        • antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA antonyjohnston@mastodon.social

          Thinking about AI controversies in writing, and all the cautionary instructions to not use em-dashes, or semicolons, or short sentences, so that readers don’t think your book is AI-generated, and… well, first of all, get knotted with that rubbish.

          khleedril@cyberplace.socialK This user is from outside of this forum
          khleedril@cyberplace.socialK This user is from outside of this forum
          khleedril@cyberplace.social
          wrote last edited by
          #10

          @antonyjohnston That is just like waving a white flag and laying down.

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          • waltman@hachyderm.ioW waltman@hachyderm.io

            @antonyjohnston One positive of all this is that folks wrote some excellent essays on how great writers have used em-dashes, and now I'm using them more than ever — take that, AIs!

            antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA This user is from outside of this forum
            antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA This user is from outside of this forum
            antonyjohnston@mastodon.social
            wrote last edited by
            #11

            @waltman 😂💪

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            • antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA antonyjohnston@mastodon.social

              Thinking about AI controversies in writing, and all the cautionary instructions to not use em-dashes, or semicolons, or short sentences, so that readers don’t think your book is AI-generated, and… well, first of all, get knotted with that rubbish.

              jake4480@c.imJ This user is from outside of this forum
              jake4480@c.imJ This user is from outside of this forum
              jake4480@c.im
              wrote last edited by
              #12

              @antonyjohnston

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              • antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA antonyjohnston@mastodon.social

                Thinking about AI controversies in writing, and all the cautionary instructions to not use em-dashes, or semicolons, or short sentences, so that readers don’t think your book is AI-generated, and… well, first of all, get knotted with that rubbish.

                tg_esq@mastodon.onlineT This user is from outside of this forum
                tg_esq@mastodon.onlineT This user is from outside of this forum
                tg_esq@mastodon.online
                wrote last edited by
                #13

                @antonyjohnston
                I agree about trust. It reminds me of debates about whether particular memoirs are "true" or not. In the end it comes down to whether we trust a particular author that these things occurred.

                Gen AI is designed to stop us from doing a long list of very human things that it is trained on and trying to replace.

                As you said, it is a futile exercise to force ourselves to stop writing in particular styles to appear more human. It is also to cede even more ground to the algorithms.

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                • antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA antonyjohnston@mastodon.social

                  Thinking about AI controversies in writing, and all the cautionary instructions to not use em-dashes, or semicolons, or short sentences, so that readers don’t think your book is AI-generated, and… well, first of all, get knotted with that rubbish.

                  lisamelton@mastodon.socialL This user is from outside of this forum
                  lisamelton@mastodon.socialL This user is from outside of this forum
                  lisamelton@mastodon.social
                  wrote last edited by
                  #14

                  @antonyjohnston This. 💯

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                  • antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA antonyjohnston@mastodon.social

                    You can’t buy trust. You can’t force it. You certainly can’t generate it with an AI prompt. And you can lose it in a heartbeat, as many have found to their cost.

                    But when it exists, it’s what makes a reader pick up a book, confident they’ll enjoy it, without ever wondering whether or not the author actually wrote it.

                    FIN

                    taatm@mathstodon.xyzT This user is from outside of this forum
                    taatm@mathstodon.xyzT This user is from outside of this forum
                    taatm@mathstodon.xyz
                    wrote last edited by
                    #15

                    @antonyjohnston
                    Exactly.

                    Also, it is such a backwards thought.
                    “Do this to not look like the thing engineered to copy you!”

                    So the people who wouldn’t think it’s AI now think it’s my writing and I’m fake?

                    Such an argument is to place a NOT rule on you and so is in fact to program you. They seek to program you to sound like a computer.

                    The level of madness is insane.

                    How not to sound like AI? Have an original thought.

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                    • R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
                    • antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA antonyjohnston@mastodon.social

                      You can’t buy trust. You can’t force it. You certainly can’t generate it with an AI prompt. And you can lose it in a heartbeat, as many have found to their cost.

                      But when it exists, it’s what makes a reader pick up a book, confident they’ll enjoy it, without ever wondering whether or not the author actually wrote it.

                      FIN

                      tedel@writing.exchangeT This user is from outside of this forum
                      tedel@writing.exchangeT This user is from outside of this forum
                      tedel@writing.exchange
                      wrote last edited by
                      #16

                      @antonyjohnston I think you can extract "You can't buy trust. You can't force it." and keep it as a nice maxim.

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                      0
                      • antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA antonyjohnston@mastodon.social

                        Thinking about AI controversies in writing, and all the cautionary instructions to not use em-dashes, or semicolons, or short sentences, so that readers don’t think your book is AI-generated, and… well, first of all, get knotted with that rubbish.

                        clarinerd@mastodon.socialC This user is from outside of this forum
                        clarinerd@mastodon.socialC This user is from outside of this forum
                        clarinerd@mastodon.social
                        wrote last edited by
                        #17

                        @antonyjohnston
                        I'm safe. I showed my writing style to an LLM and it had an aneurysm.

                        An example, the opening sentence of an editorial I am writing.

                        New Hampshire’s unique geography and its lack of usable intermunicipal public transit produce a mutually reinforcing relationship between economically constrained geographic mobility and geographically constrained economic mobility.

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                        • antonyjohnston@mastodon.socialA antonyjohnston@mastodon.social

                          It also doesn’t matter what changes we make, what assurances we give readers, or what “Human written!!!” badges we put on our covers, because the people publishing AI-prompted nonsense can do all those things too.

                          mardras@mas.toM This user is from outside of this forum
                          mardras@mas.toM This user is from outside of this forum
                          mardras@mas.to
                          wrote last edited by
                          #18

                          @antonyjohnston next step, inserting typos to “look human.” How long?

                          1 Reply Last reply
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                          • R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
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