AJ Fish TracingVRL.substack.com

@VilliAsgeirsson @LuizaJarovsky Methinks some outlet journalists are managing up right now. Recall the software company that claimed to be using AI to win clients, hid the fact that they weren't semafor.com/article/07/06/…

@LuizaJarovsky True. I tried it and it felt like work. I hardly knew the stories. Spent more time editing AI than writing and editing my own thing. Cool experiment. Good to know it doesn’t work, so I don’t have to think about it.

Many people (myself included) see writing as a form of deep, authentic expression. Using AI to replace any aspect of the writing process is felt as shallow, undesirable, and almost outrageous. For others, writing is just a task. You must know what type of writer you are.

@TM_Brown It's not that black and white. It's a different process, to be a "vibe code cleanup specialist" vs. writing your own code, and one must switch modes back and forth now. It carries the same deskilling pitfalls for coders. Respect Anil Dash, but he's not the end-all authority here.

So actually I’m curious about the vibe coding vs. AI writing divide and why programmers seem cool with using Claude code while writers are widely against it. Genuine question: Do programmers not see the process of writing code as integral to the discipline?

@NickKristof Wild you're just now discovering this @NickKristof ... where have you been? They think to read a newspaper is to read every word, and they avoid trying for that and other reasons.

Hmm. This was dispiriting. I had a haircut from a young woman, and after she established that I write for a newspaper, she gushed: "That's so interesting! I've never actually read a newspaper."

@SamAdlerBell It's weird we have to refer to voice-to-text, which has been around, as "AI" now. Our language is so constricted in this conversation

my contribution to the discourse

@homemadehooplah But building up skills and a good reputation pays off, just not in the way one initially envisions. And the trust one has engendered is hard to see at times like this when so much in publishing is in flux, given the verdicts that are coming right now

When I first started blogging in 2014, I spent *so much* time helping other people, creating resources, contributing to discussions, etc. I wasn't perfect but I tried really, really hard to help others succeed. But as I've slowly lost everything over the past 3 years... it's been crickets. Sure, they tell me they feel bad about my situation - but I didn't need pity. I needed help. And there wasn't any. Sometimes I think that's been the worst part of all of this.

@CharlotteAlter Vested interests will coerce the conversation back the other direction. Anticipate the see saw

I feel like in the last week we’ve moved from “everybody is using AI in their writing, just get over it” to “using AI to write is a gross violation of trust and an affront to the very idea of writing and thinking” and frankly I am glad we’re all finally coming to our senses

@CharlotteAlter @NewYorker I *became a reader* after college, when I worked at developing the habit. Before, it started through magazines like Outside, even Time, others. Earlier in life through Cosmopolitan those FOB front-of-book & shorter capsules. It's a mistake to betray readers by using genAI

@CharlotteAlter Paulene Kael first got noticed writing movie capsules. She later reviewed movies for KPFA radio then the @NewYorker

This used to be the work of junior journalists. Aggregating other news stories, scanning press releases for newsworthy nuggets, cross checking with sources, checking facts, writing it all up… that was my job as a junior reporter for many many years. Doing that work taught me how to write and think. Now that AI does it, who will even have the chance to develop real journalism skills anymore? wsj.com/business/media…

A lit publishing friend said her company screens submissions for the likelihood they’re AI, and turns down subs with high likelihoods. Ironically, they’re using AI to do this and don’t seem to understand that, in doing so, they’re giving AI more content to digest and train on. Now add to the mix this high degree of inaccuracy and you get writers submitting original content that’s being used without their consent to train AI which prevents them from earning a living from their personal work. Humanity can’t keep going in this direction.

@mattbencole We need to acknowledge writing papers is scary for most, but that doesn't mean you should avoid it by offloading work to a generator.

This is literally what my students say when they get busted using AI. “I didn’t use it to write my paper just for brainstorming, outlining, and editing.” Yeah that’s most of what writing is.

@Variety Movie listings are hiding in witness protection program. Does anyone in Hollywood ever look at it from the moviegoers POV? It's a bigger job now just to find out what different theaters are playing. You removed the theater marques

Ryan Gosling says it's not on moviegoers to save movie theaters. That responsibility falls to the Hollywood studios. “Six years ago, I got the manuscript [ for 'Project Hail Mary'], the most ambitious thing I’ll ever make; it seemed impossible. It was too good not to give it a shot. Six years later, we did it. Here we are, we’re all back in theaters. It’s not your job to keep them open, it’s our job to make things that make it worth you coming out.” variety.com/2026/film/news…

@drakmog And adults removed the classroom, ungraded read-aloud, two paragraphs per kid, where you hear fellow 4th-graders stumble on the occasional word & learn it's not just you who's imperfect.

unpopular opinion: the reason most kids "hate reading" is because we turned it into a performance review. reading logs. book reports. comprehension quizzes every chapter. we took the most naturally enjoyable thing a kid can do and made it feel like homework. then we wonder why they stop the second nobody's grading them.

@ednewtonrex Three stores. One neighborhood grocery "oh is this Donna Summer? Great song, do you know what it is?" One high-end clothing store "Is this D'angelo? Great song, " One big chain grocery "Is this Jackson 5 ... oh wait, this is AI." I close my ears now

@aljfish Really interesting, which store(s) was this?

This website shows you how much money is being siphoned off from human artists by AI slop on Spotify. Over $2.5 million lost by real people - and that's just from 50 AI ‘artists’. Slop dilutes royalties. A major reason AI training on copyrighted work should not be considered fair use. sloptracker.org

@ednewtonrex admit it's an AI DJ

@ednewtonrex Three times now I asked a store clerk "oh what's that song" they mumble then agree it's an AI DJ. The latest was an AI voice-cloned ripoff of this song, almost note-for-note the same, youtube.com/watch?v=niXNQ5…

@kareem_carr This was my early assessment, it's a "surprise me" app. By disconnecting the user from the process that produces the output, sometimes the delight of something great is rewarding. I get that when I hire outside illustrators. The difference is I'm more satisfied with the latter

The way AI is sold right now is a recipe for addiction. It gives you rewards of semi-random quality, after semi-random wait times, and just when you're deepest in the flow, it can cut you off for hours. We're the rats and these are obviously the pellets.

@NPRinskeep @NPRInskeep Capitalism has decided terrestrial radio needs to go. Car makers earn more off satellite radio subscription packages fox13news.com/news/tesla-pha…

As CBS retreats from radio - which 233 million Americans use - NPR remains on and the audience is up. The main CBS product was a short hourly newscast. NPR’s hourly news is on your local station - and also available on demand! Hit Play on the NPR app apps.apple.com/us/app/npr-nat…

@MrEwanMorrison Tristan Harris is hyping it too

Mark this, check back in in 12 months to see if his prediction has come true. If not, take him to court for market manipulation.

This post made many AI authors angry.