SUBSTACK ARTICLE : The AI Revolution is an opportunity for writers (the human kind)

[LJ Beck]

This is an advertisement for Substack, but it's an interesting (positive amongst the OMFG) take on AI, and how Substack feels they sit in the coming marketplace.

The AI revolution is an opportunity for writers (the human kind)

Content will be commoditized—but content isn’t culture

open.substack.com

 

[Peyton Stafford]

Interesting but illogical. To quote:

When it comes to Substack, we have focused on using the internet’s powers to serve, rather than subsume, writers. There’s nothing in the AI revolution that suggests we will have to change this approach. From image generation and audio transcription tools we’ve already built, to a future where a single writer can make a feature film, and beyond, we will focus on harnessing the power of these tools for human users. If the computer is a bicycle for the mind, AI will be a jumbo jet.

Note: Substack trumpets their abilities in image generation (replacing visual artists) and audio transcription (replacing voice actors) and promises to replace the entire film industry.

Content is not culture. As for Substack, what is it?

 

[LJ Beck]

Interesting but illogical. To quote:

Note: Substack trumpets their abilities in image generation (replacing visual artists) and audio transcription (replacing voice actors) and promises to replace the entire film industry.

Content is not culture. As for Substack, what is it?

Yeah, the Substack horn trumpeting is yucky for sure.

"Substack is an American online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters. It allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers."

I follow a few writers on Substack. It's an alternative to traditional publishing, hooking into crowd funding for writers on a subscription basis.

 

[Mel L]

This is an advertisement for Substack, but it's an interesting (positive amongst the OMFG) take on AI, and how Substack feels they sit in the coming marketplace.

The AI revolution is an opportunity for writers (the human kind)

Content will be commoditized—but content isn’t culture

open.substack.com

What is undeniable is that, like it or not, AI is here to stay. So we may as well learn to work with it.
As writers, what separates us from such tools is our intuition and humanity.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

 

[CarolMS]

Starting when it was new and for several years, I followed a journalist I liked who identified and critqued problems in the way mainstream media in the U.S. reports the news. He was often a guest on MSNBC and from there I discovered his donation-supported (or free) newsletter, which was great. Unfortunately, he was killed in a bicycle accident (a car hit him when out riding). Bummer. I've considered subscribing to a few other free newletters of interest to me. I've also heard that some fiction writers are using substack as a platform on which to serialize works in the way people do on Wattpad and Vella, etc., and build followers toward having a potential readership for a book they plan to publish in the future. I suppose it can be used in a way similar to the way people use blogs or perhaps other social media, too.

 

[AgentPete]

Too many folk in the publishing industry are still quietly rubbing their hands while waiting for AI to replace the human-generated word. Because, hey, it’s cheaper than paying an authorial advance, right?

I think this is a massive misunderstanding (fuelled by a gargantuan international publicity campaign) of what AI is and can do.

The shrill publicity says, AI is epoch-changing… it’s going to steal all your jobs… it’s a greater threat to humanity than nuclear weapons. Be afraid!

This approach works (selling through fear). But be aware that the aim is to essentially give the main players, Google / Meta / etc a monopoly over the tech, since “they are the only ones we can trust with it”.

Yeah.

Hollow guffaw.

The current reality is that AI is currently flooding the net with verbal trash. Mind-numbing quantities of it. Utter garbage.

But it’s not remotely as dangerous as nuclear Armageddon. What’s happening is that vast swathes of the net are becoming impossible to use.

Actually, the only way I’m looking to use AI at the moment is to summarise those websites, videos, podcasts and social media that are in whole or in part AI-generated. If I could get a one-page summary of all the stuff I’m really interested in, in my mailbox once a day, then I’d pay a small fee for that. No-one quite offers that at the moment, but it will come.

Ironic, I guess, to use AI to tame the tsunami of words that AI is itself responsible for generating.

 

[CarolMS]

Starting when it was new and for several years, I followed a journalist I liked who identified and critqued problems in the way mainstream media in the U.S. reports the news. He was often a guest on MSNBC and from there I discovered his donation-supported (or free) newsletter, which was great. Unfortunately, he was killed in a bicycle accident (a car hit him when out riding). Bummer. I've considered subscribing to a few other free newletters of interest to me. I've also heard that some fiction writers are using substack as a platform on which to serialize works in the way people do on Wattpad and Vella, etc., and build followers toward having a potential readership for a book they plan to publish in the future. I suppose it can be used in a way similar to the way people use blogs or perhaps other social media, too.

I should maybe add that the substack newsletters I'm acquainted with are written by real people. I haven't read substack's promo ads or whatever, and I don't know if they are promoting the site to people who want to do their newsletters using AI. Is that what they are doing? But, hopefully, doing so without subsuming or cancelling out all the writers using substack to actually write their own material?

 

[LJ Beck]

I should maybe add that the substack newsletters I'm acquainted with are written by real people. I haven't read substack's promo ads or whatever, and I don't know if they are promoting the site to people who want to do their newsletters using AI. Is that what they are doing? But, hopefully, doing so without subsuming or cancelling out all the writers using substack to actually write their own material?

I don't think they're promoting AI writing per say. It's real writers who are using their services.

 

[TimRees]

Pete wrote: "The current reality is that AI is currently flooding the net with verbal trash. Mind-numbing quantities of it. Utter garbage."

Has anyone seen the film Idiocracy? Could that depiction of human society - or should I say garbage - ever come true?

AI is only part of the problem. There is a general dumbing-down of humanity. The other day I was watching an interview with a rugby coach who is having to use younger players because the experienced older players are leaving for big money abroad (France and Japan). He was asked if he found that challenging as a coach. His reply: "We've had to restructure training sessions to be shorter because the young guys coming through don't have the attention span. They struggle to focus for long periods and just seem to switch off. So it has caused us to rethink training"

My parents had brilliant general knowledge. I would ask a question and they would answer it in sync. Today we Google.

Is the human brain evolving to access data more efficiently rather than store it? Birds can evolve a beak design in a generation to take better advantage of available food. Is the human brain being rewired within a generation or two?

Another interesting story recounted to me a couple of days ago: My sister works in a GP surgery. A Young girl wants to be a nurse and was helping out at the surgery for work experience. A doctor asked her to cut a square bandage pad into quarters. She didn't understand the question. A qualified nurse tried to explain that she should cut it in half then cut those pieces in half. Apparently, she still didn't get it.

 

[Pamela Jo]

What is undeniable is that, like it or not, AI is here to stay. So we may as well learn to work with it.
As writers, what separates us from such tools is our intuition and humanity.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

It is here for the present, but perhaps not to stay. The environmental cost of the cloud and operating AI is not even discussed. It is enormous. Ireland for example is the headquarters of tech giants because taxpayers paid for electricity plants and then the government sold that energy cheap for data storage.
The reality is that everyday we make the choice between having our old photos stored or being able to afford to heat homes. Even hydroelectric rich Switzerland has nixed the idea of electric cars because they cannot generate enough electricity to be feasible.

Everyday we carry on with the status quo we accept a world with no elephants or other species who cannot survive climate change. The only constant is change.

Let's say AI becomes the sole generator of entertainment content controlled by media giants and the first world becomes the Idiocracy foreseen in the 2006 film. "OW, my balls." A new idea will still be able to bring that all crashing down. Relevant ideas, not entertainment have always been the real engine of story.

Now is the time to look for a new way to connect with readers. The future is still open. Substack isn't it. I joined. I got out pretty quickly. It's very hard to find something you want to read . It's like a giant slush pile. Pete's ideas of web rings could be more workable because it breaks down into genre, or niche's that readers can easily navigate. Readers are eclectic. They need a system that allows them to connect with what interests them without getting buried in TMI.

 

[Pamela Jo]

My First Time at TGI Fridays

Chain restaurants are surging again. But are places like TGI Fridays worth it?

thetakeout.com

Think of Ai generated entertainment as the corporate fast-food industry, TGI Fridays in this piece. Writers have to become the taco trucks.

 

[Hannah F]

Pete wrote: "The current reality is that AI is currently flooding the net with verbal trash. Mind-numbing quantities of it. Utter garbage."

Has anyone seen the film Idiocracy? Could that depiction of human society - or should I say garbage - ever come true?

AI is only part of the problem. There is a general dumbing-down of humanity. The other day I was watching an interview with a rugby coach who is having to use younger players because the experienced older players are leaving for big money abroad (France and Japan). He was asked if he found that challenging as a coach. His reply: "We've had to restructure training sessions to be shorter because the young guys coming through don't have the attention span. They struggle to focus for long periods and just seem to switch off. So it has caused us to rethink training"

My parents had brilliant general knowledge. I would ask a question and they would answer it in sync. Today we Google.

Is the human brain evolving to access data more efficiently rather than store it? Birds can evolve a beak design in a generation to take better advantage of available food. Is the human brain being rewired within a generation or two?

Another interesting story recounted to me a couple of days ago: My sister works in a GP surgery. A Young girl wants to be a nurse and was helping out at the surgery for work experience. A doctor asked her to cut a square bandage pad into quarters. She didn't understand the question. A qualified nurse tried to explain that she should cut it in half then cut those pieces in half. Apparently, she still didn't get it.

The human brain develops in accordance with its use based on the use it or lose it mantra. People who don't train their brain to concentrate for long periods (not including individuals with ADHD which is a separate issue) will develop a brain that can't concentrate for long periods. Our present social media exposure promotes this type of brain development. Luckily, the brain is a very adaptable organ. These young lads could train their brains to concentrate for longer.
Interestingly, taxi drivers used to have a larger hippocampus (memory storage) than the average human because of having to remember so many routes. I wonder has that changed now they all have satnav?

 

[LJ Beck]

The combination of not needing to learn or remember things anymore, plus the long-term effects of the food industry's decline in standards, plus the large quantities of medications and toxins that are pumped into people from various sources, along with the movement to cater to kids, encouraging them to make the rules, while those really in charge aren't doing enough... it's not a wonder society is struggling. It's also not a wonder that people want easy solutions, like using AI to do stuff for them.
I'm starting to feel like one of those old people that refuses new technology, and talks about "the kids these days."