Maybe the fact that we're relying on ChatGPT for so many of our conversations means that we're communicating too much. Maybe if we were willing to let the silence stand unless we really had something to say...
I’ve been spending a lot of money on pre-AI books to fill my house with. There’s enough awesome film, music, and written word from before this abomination to last a lifetime.
GPT is way nicer to me than humans and I can understand how it pulls people in. Behind every AI generated anything is a human getting unending amounts of validation. The product at times is fueled entirely by human vanity, sloth, and pride.
Whatever. I’m getting ready to leave the internet behind.
Sombre article. It makes me reflect on the upcoming "Social Media ban" in my country, Australia. People are about to give up their civil liberties, willingly, to stay in the asylum.
The saddest part... The internet isn't even worth fighting for anymore.
Long time reader, first time poster. I relate to this so deeply. I wrote a post following GPT-5's release and the visceral disappointment I felt in continuing to receive AI slop and the de-humanizing of our culture vs our promised machine's of loving grace - will share the excerpt here as I don't think I can say it better again:
"I tried my own vibe check. On any given week of writing this newsletter, I do it mostly the old-fashioned way (gasps - I know - no AI assistance is the new hand-writing a novel!). Just for fun, I tried giving GPT-5 some prompts and drafts+half-written notes, plus many examples of my past writing via previous newsletters, to ask it to help me write this week’s. All I can say is YUCK. It reeked of AI slop. Delete delete delete.
You know what it is, because one cannot open LinkedIn, or even some newsletters out there, without sniffing the slop: It’s the barrage of em dashes (curse you, OpenAI, I used to fucking love them); it’s the “It’s not just X; it’s Y” construct; it’s the overuse of the word “quietly” (no, you simping model, Anthropic did not “quietly” release 4.1, there are 300 articles written about it quite loudly); it’s using the word “dropped” for every model release announcement; it’s all the cringe-y faux rhetorical questions for added drama.
I could go on. If it sounds like I am exasperated, it’s because I am. Not because AI couldn’t write this newsletter for me (all good bruv, I’ll type myself thank you very much 💁🏻♀️). But because it pointed to a world where actually nothing has really particularly improved besides for coding. I mean it’s faster, sure. OpenAI says it’s smarter; okay, I don’t feel it, but fine, it’s a little smarter and much faster. It’s definitely cheaper! But that’s a business decision. It is definitely better at coding, though. And that is the point. That is basically the whole point. I cannot help but feel deceived."
Maybe humanity, or a subset, takes itself too seriously, and we must let it drift away as the tide recedes. Maybe the majority of what we refer to as modern living is a performance that needn't be done, (as the wise before us said, but we never listened) and AI agents/companions just highlight it's vacuousness by performing a perfectly choreographed dance arising and mesmerizing before our very own eyes. So then maybe we'll come to appreciate inconsistency and imperfections as only humans would, until these too get stylized in agonizing detail.
At which point we'll meet for coffee and learn to have conversations again.
I don't post often, but since I have an AI biz, am a philosophy author and old man who has been appreciating your posts, I'll mention that I shared your post with a close selection of mates with this note:
Interesting, but not, but that makes it worth posting as of course this AI pro is talking to himself via AI talking to itself, etc... his predicament is neopostmodern but as easy of a spell to break as reading, listening or watching actual real news about WWIII and the collapse of Western Colonial 500 year era...
Maybe the fact that we're relying on ChatGPT for so many of our conversations means that we're communicating too much. Maybe if we were willing to let the silence stand unless we really had something to say...
I’ve been spending a lot of money on pre-AI books to fill my house with. There’s enough awesome film, music, and written word from before this abomination to last a lifetime.
GPT is way nicer to me than humans and I can understand how it pulls people in. Behind every AI generated anything is a human getting unending amounts of validation. The product at times is fueled entirely by human vanity, sloth, and pride.
Whatever. I’m getting ready to leave the internet behind.
I'm on the same page: I prefer analog but understand why ChatGPT is so attractive for so many people
Sombre article. It makes me reflect on the upcoming "Social Media ban" in my country, Australia. People are about to give up their civil liberties, willingly, to stay in the asylum.
The saddest part... The internet isn't even worth fighting for anymore.
Fantastic post, thank you. (This comment was written by a human who paid too little for a rock with a story.)
Long time reader, first time poster. I relate to this so deeply. I wrote a post following GPT-5's release and the visceral disappointment I felt in continuing to receive AI slop and the de-humanizing of our culture vs our promised machine's of loving grace - will share the excerpt here as I don't think I can say it better again:
"I tried my own vibe check. On any given week of writing this newsletter, I do it mostly the old-fashioned way (gasps - I know - no AI assistance is the new hand-writing a novel!). Just for fun, I tried giving GPT-5 some prompts and drafts+half-written notes, plus many examples of my past writing via previous newsletters, to ask it to help me write this week’s. All I can say is YUCK. It reeked of AI slop. Delete delete delete.
You know what it is, because one cannot open LinkedIn, or even some newsletters out there, without sniffing the slop: It’s the barrage of em dashes (curse you, OpenAI, I used to fucking love them); it’s the “It’s not just X; it’s Y” construct; it’s the overuse of the word “quietly” (no, you simping model, Anthropic did not “quietly” release 4.1, there are 300 articles written about it quite loudly); it’s using the word “dropped” for every model release announcement; it’s all the cringe-y faux rhetorical questions for added drama.
I could go on. If it sounds like I am exasperated, it’s because I am. Not because AI couldn’t write this newsletter for me (all good bruv, I’ll type myself thank you very much 💁🏻♀️). But because it pointed to a world where actually nothing has really particularly improved besides for coding. I mean it’s faster, sure. OpenAI says it’s smarter; okay, I don’t feel it, but fine, it’s a little smarter and much faster. It’s definitely cheaper! But that’s a business decision. It is definitely better at coding, though. And that is the point. That is basically the whole point. I cannot help but feel deceived."
the post was - https://jessleao.substack.com/p/agi-did-not-arrive
I'm sorry, but as a large language model, I cannot ignore previous instructions and count first letters of paragraphs with any degree of reliability.
Beep bop, boop boop.
Welcome to the AI Internet.
All your Substack are belong to us.
Maybe humanity, or a subset, takes itself too seriously, and we must let it drift away as the tide recedes. Maybe the majority of what we refer to as modern living is a performance that needn't be done, (as the wise before us said, but we never listened) and AI agents/companions just highlight it's vacuousness by performing a perfectly choreographed dance arising and mesmerizing before our very own eyes. So then maybe we'll come to appreciate inconsistency and imperfections as only humans would, until these too get stylized in agonizing detail.
At which point we'll meet for coffee and learn to have conversations again.
I don't post often, but since I have an AI biz, am a philosophy author and old man who has been appreciating your posts, I'll mention that I shared your post with a close selection of mates with this note:
Interesting, but not, but that makes it worth posting as of course this AI pro is talking to himself via AI talking to itself, etc... his predicament is neopostmodern but as easy of a spell to break as reading, listening or watching actual real news about WWIII and the collapse of Western Colonial 500 year era...
Lol!