I found it interesting that Pangram flagged my post as 💯 Human even though it includes a whole paragraph written by AI. That seems to show that it analyzes context vs just count the # of AI constructions.
Thank you Dina. I agree on your reflection about being able to recognize the flavor of AI in a piece - no matter if it's added by a human or a machine. Just as in food, there are flavors many people like a lot even if they are quite common and little profile-shaping, such as salt and sugar.
What's wrong with salt and sugar? Nothing and everything, of course :)
I do like how much more a distinct voice stands out in what I read nowadays. To be honest, it doesn't matter to me how it was created. Depending on my reading purpose, it doesn't even have to be unique, as long as I get the information I wanted to distill from it. Sometimes, even these context-clarification comparison are helpful to me.
For me, the more important shift happens in the focus in my consumation: it feels like I can get a clearer picture of my own reading purpose because I will get bored so much quicker once it's no longer met.
“Five years ago, I couldn’t put a caption together, and it would take me several hours and a Xanax to write a few sentences for photo contests or magazine assignments. To start this newsletter, I had to put myself through a personal writing boot camp. Five years later, I am still honing my voice.”
Really? Your writing is so good I keep wishing you’d do more narrative, documentary photography so I could enjoy the reporting and writing as much as the images. But I know, there’s something about a blank page that is terrifying. 😀
The reason AI writing is so trite, is because it’s trained on a large body of….mediocre writing. The bulk of us are NOT great authors - that’s why good writing is such a rare treat.
Very good piece. Thank you for the effort. It’s been obvious to me how much effort you have put into your writing work. I started as a journalist and I spent the past 40 years writing every day for clients and for pleasure. There were assignments over which I sweated blood and wasn’t sure I could get it right. The point where I diverge from your analysis is editing. I refuse to use AI for editing. I don’t want to save time and I find that the editing process - whether it’s grammar, construction, whatever, for me it’s an essential part of the challenge of writing. I spend as much time editing, sometimes as I do on the original initial draft.
Professional writers advised me to use an editor in order to learn how to write, so I did so for the first two years of starting the newsletter - an actual human editor I mean. I found that feedback invaluable, but of course, that costs money. So, for the last year I’ve been training my AI to help me edit in the same way. It doesn’t actually write anything, it shows where constructions are clunky, logic breaks, etc, and then I correct it on my own. Everyone has their own process of course that works for them, and there is no one size fits all.
That makes sense. And is a wise, intentional approach, Dina. As others, and I, have noted before, you are a gifted writer. The prerequisite, of course, is your thoughtful insight and observation about this craft (and so much more).
I'm also an ADD-ADHD addled person. I can only write on absolute deadline. Give me 4 weeks to write a project and my mind goes into shutdown until the last 2 hours. Then the words flow effortlessly as the clock ticks down to my deadline.
AI is driving all of us nuts. You are far from alone.
Thank you for this article. It really speaks to the writers block I'm living through right now and this pesky internal question of "what's the point of putting in the work if AI can write in 1 minute what might take me 3 hours, and people will read AI as much or more than what I write." This is a much needed conversation — (that is my em!) do people even care if they are reading AI slop or human writing? Is it a messaging thing? WOULD people care if they had more awareness on what is human and what is not. I can't even believe I had to write that sentence.
And what about writers who are still trying to find themselves and hone their voice. When I was a professional songwriter, I wrote a lot of mediocre songs before I wrote the ones that landed a publishing deal. Have humans lost the space to grow and progress and learn by doing to AI? That would just be sad. But I agree with you on editing. Putting aside the damage to our lands and communities from AI data centers, using AI for the repeating, mundane tasks of editing are a dream and at times have made my work better. We live in strange, contradictory times.
I really value your work, the conversations you spark here, and your perspectives. Here's to Humans! 🙌🏼
Thanks for that, Dina. I believe everyone should stop and think a bit before taking sides. It's not black or white, there's a whole grayscale out there.
Also, now I'm curious about how you use AI as a photography editor. Do you mean in the sense of publishing editor?
I grew up a reader; and I valued then, and still value now, a writer’s voice. I’m also an editor, and while I’m attentive to grammar, spelling, and punctuation, I’m also attentive to voice. I want to know who’s speaking as well as what they’re saying. And the voice of AI is so damn boring. I’ve written for an encyclopedia, and know what it’s like to write in an institutional voice. For encyclopedias, it really can’t be helped. But to ask a bot to do it out of laziness, to put out words that aren’t your own, words that reflect thoughts (although AI doesn’t think, so “thoughts” may be an inapt term) that have been conjured up like some CGI rabbit from a CGI hat brings questions to my mind, like: What is the “writer” really thinkng? Is this information (I’m thinking especially of nonfiction here) something I don’t already know, or can’t easily find elsewhere? What does the word “opinion” mean? And, finally, Why should I bother with this? Of all the uses AI can be put to, writing seems to me to one of the worst. Pangram, by the way, reviewd my latest Substack post and found it to have been written by a human. No shit.
Given how little people seem to parse rhetoric in the “news” it is sadly not surprising to hear they don’t mind or care if writing is AI. Or that all this generic ai writing is accelerating a dead internet.
I am curious how you’ve gone about setting up ai as a photo editor, like the extent in which it is involved.
Thanks for provoking new thoughts as I slowly explore what this AI thing may mean for me and the society that contains me. I've only posted a few things on Substack as I'm looking at it in comparison to my Wordpress Web log that I've maintained for 17 years. I knew nothing about Panagram until yesterday, and I have to think it is pointless for me as a reader. I will know whether a piece I'm reading is either good and worth reading or is not. If AI can't keep pace with a good writer, then it's not going to win my attention and respect. If your essay presents thoughtful ideas with the beauty of poetry, I'm in. If it reads like a page from a technical manual, no thank you.
I'm not a writer and I've always struggled to write well. And as a person with dyslexia spelling can be a struggle
But at times I have a story to tell; Be it a Youtube description, A caption for a photo, or some text for a blog post about a trip or adventure I'v taken.
Ai helps me take my thoughts and experiences and write about it better than I can alone. Sometimes I'll do a first draft then ask Ai to suggest improvements, some times I give a bull point list.
A year ago I tried to see if AI can help me organize thoughts in drafts. To make those texts not sound AI, I had to rewrite each sentence until it became completely my own, and that process that took much longer than if I had written it myself in the first place. I also noticed that every time I used AI's help, it became harder for me to write the next article. It encourages your brain to seek support instead of plowing through when the writing gets really hard. So, I stopped seeking its help for drafts, and instead feed the finished essay and let it find logical inconsistencies - which it does a decent job at - which I then correct on my own. But everyone needs different kind of help and we are all just learning how to use this. And this is a personal sentiment, but I'd much rather read typos and awkward phrases than polished sounding AI writing.
Thanks for summarizing, I’m so spun by all the AI-YI-YI😵💫 in the news lately, I just looked the other way to the Pangram thing. 🤷🏽♀️ I love Substack, but it’s beginning to wear on me a bit.
It was your writing that drew me to your work as much as your photography. I think I even commented on my first restack of one of your articles on how good the writing was. Another stellar example here.
I found it interesting that Pangram flagged my post as 💯 Human even though it includes a whole paragraph written by AI. That seems to show that it analyzes context vs just count the # of AI constructions.
Thank you Dina. I agree on your reflection about being able to recognize the flavor of AI in a piece - no matter if it's added by a human or a machine. Just as in food, there are flavors many people like a lot even if they are quite common and little profile-shaping, such as salt and sugar.
What's wrong with salt and sugar? Nothing and everything, of course :)
I do like how much more a distinct voice stands out in what I read nowadays. To be honest, it doesn't matter to me how it was created. Depending on my reading purpose, it doesn't even have to be unique, as long as I get the information I wanted to distill from it. Sometimes, even these context-clarification comparison are helpful to me.
For me, the more important shift happens in the focus in my consumation: it feels like I can get a clearer picture of my own reading purpose because I will get bored so much quicker once it's no longer met.
“Five years ago, I couldn’t put a caption together, and it would take me several hours and a Xanax to write a few sentences for photo contests or magazine assignments. To start this newsletter, I had to put myself through a personal writing boot camp. Five years later, I am still honing my voice.”
Really? Your writing is so good I keep wishing you’d do more narrative, documentary photography so I could enjoy the reporting and writing as much as the images. But I know, there’s something about a blank page that is terrifying. 😀
I've been thinking exactly that lately, that I could do my own stories with photos and writing. Interesting you mentioned that.
My pride won't allow me to turn over my writing to AI. But as a proof-reader, editor, and research assistant, I find it invaluable.
The reason AI writing is so trite, is because it’s trained on a large body of….mediocre writing. The bulk of us are NOT great authors - that’s why good writing is such a rare treat.
Very good piece. Thank you for the effort. It’s been obvious to me how much effort you have put into your writing work. I started as a journalist and I spent the past 40 years writing every day for clients and for pleasure. There were assignments over which I sweated blood and wasn’t sure I could get it right. The point where I diverge from your analysis is editing. I refuse to use AI for editing. I don’t want to save time and I find that the editing process - whether it’s grammar, construction, whatever, for me it’s an essential part of the challenge of writing. I spend as much time editing, sometimes as I do on the original initial draft.
Professional writers advised me to use an editor in order to learn how to write, so I did so for the first two years of starting the newsletter - an actual human editor I mean. I found that feedback invaluable, but of course, that costs money. So, for the last year I’ve been training my AI to help me edit in the same way. It doesn’t actually write anything, it shows where constructions are clunky, logic breaks, etc, and then I correct it on my own. Everyone has their own process of course that works for them, and there is no one size fits all.
That makes sense. And is a wise, intentional approach, Dina. As others, and I, have noted before, you are a gifted writer. The prerequisite, of course, is your thoughtful insight and observation about this craft (and so much more).
Please don't ever stop creating those Dina-isms.
I come here just for that.
I'm also an ADD-ADHD addled person. I can only write on absolute deadline. Give me 4 weeks to write a project and my mind goes into shutdown until the last 2 hours. Then the words flow effortlessly as the clock ticks down to my deadline.
AI is driving all of us nuts. You are far from alone.
Just keep making images as you do so well.
Thank you for this article. It really speaks to the writers block I'm living through right now and this pesky internal question of "what's the point of putting in the work if AI can write in 1 minute what might take me 3 hours, and people will read AI as much or more than what I write." This is a much needed conversation — (that is my em!) do people even care if they are reading AI slop or human writing? Is it a messaging thing? WOULD people care if they had more awareness on what is human and what is not. I can't even believe I had to write that sentence.
And what about writers who are still trying to find themselves and hone their voice. When I was a professional songwriter, I wrote a lot of mediocre songs before I wrote the ones that landed a publishing deal. Have humans lost the space to grow and progress and learn by doing to AI? That would just be sad. But I agree with you on editing. Putting aside the damage to our lands and communities from AI data centers, using AI for the repeating, mundane tasks of editing are a dream and at times have made my work better. We live in strange, contradictory times.
I really value your work, the conversations you spark here, and your perspectives. Here's to Humans! 🙌🏼
Thanks for that, Dina. I believe everyone should stop and think a bit before taking sides. It's not black or white, there's a whole grayscale out there.
Also, now I'm curious about how you use AI as a photography editor. Do you mean in the sense of publishing editor?
About photo editing maybe in a future post. I'm just experimenting for now.
Same here. Looking forward to your notes!
Thank you for the insights.
I grew up a reader; and I valued then, and still value now, a writer’s voice. I’m also an editor, and while I’m attentive to grammar, spelling, and punctuation, I’m also attentive to voice. I want to know who’s speaking as well as what they’re saying. And the voice of AI is so damn boring. I’ve written for an encyclopedia, and know what it’s like to write in an institutional voice. For encyclopedias, it really can’t be helped. But to ask a bot to do it out of laziness, to put out words that aren’t your own, words that reflect thoughts (although AI doesn’t think, so “thoughts” may be an inapt term) that have been conjured up like some CGI rabbit from a CGI hat brings questions to my mind, like: What is the “writer” really thinkng? Is this information (I’m thinking especially of nonfiction here) something I don’t already know, or can’t easily find elsewhere? What does the word “opinion” mean? And, finally, Why should I bother with this? Of all the uses AI can be put to, writing seems to me to one of the worst. Pangram, by the way, reviewd my latest Substack post and found it to have been written by a human. No shit.
Given how little people seem to parse rhetoric in the “news” it is sadly not surprising to hear they don’t mind or care if writing is AI. Or that all this generic ai writing is accelerating a dead internet.
I am curious how you’ve gone about setting up ai as a photo editor, like the extent in which it is involved.
Just experimenting for now, not ready to discuss yet but maybe in a future post.
Thanks for provoking new thoughts as I slowly explore what this AI thing may mean for me and the society that contains me. I've only posted a few things on Substack as I'm looking at it in comparison to my Wordpress Web log that I've maintained for 17 years. I knew nothing about Panagram until yesterday, and I have to think it is pointless for me as a reader. I will know whether a piece I'm reading is either good and worth reading or is not. If AI can't keep pace with a good writer, then it's not going to win my attention and respect. If your essay presents thoughtful ideas with the beauty of poetry, I'm in. If it reads like a page from a technical manual, no thank you.
My experience with Ai is complicated.
I'm not a writer and I've always struggled to write well. And as a person with dyslexia spelling can be a struggle
But at times I have a story to tell; Be it a Youtube description, A caption for a photo, or some text for a blog post about a trip or adventure I'v taken.
Ai helps me take my thoughts and experiences and write about it better than I can alone. Sometimes I'll do a first draft then ask Ai to suggest improvements, some times I give a bull point list.
But I do worry about it not sounding like me
A year ago I tried to see if AI can help me organize thoughts in drafts. To make those texts not sound AI, I had to rewrite each sentence until it became completely my own, and that process that took much longer than if I had written it myself in the first place. I also noticed that every time I used AI's help, it became harder for me to write the next article. It encourages your brain to seek support instead of plowing through when the writing gets really hard. So, I stopped seeking its help for drafts, and instead feed the finished essay and let it find logical inconsistencies - which it does a decent job at - which I then correct on my own. But everyone needs different kind of help and we are all just learning how to use this. And this is a personal sentiment, but I'd much rather read typos and awkward phrases than polished sounding AI writing.
Thanks for summarizing, I’m so spun by all the AI-YI-YI😵💫 in the news lately, I just looked the other way to the Pangram thing. 🤷🏽♀️ I love Substack, but it’s beginning to wear on me a bit.
Nice article. Learned something new.
It was your writing that drew me to your work as much as your photography. I think I even commented on my first restack of one of your articles on how good the writing was. Another stellar example here.