Calling Real Writers
A Stand Against The Rise of ChatGPT Pablum
This is a heartfelt call to ‘real’ writers on Substack, and elsewhere, who value our Craft and feel there is an absence of decorum in how AI is being deployed.
When I say real writers, I don’t mean people who identify professionally as writers, I just mean real humans who write to express themselves and share their minds and their souls through their work.
This is for anyone who thinks the craft of writing and connecting with humans, as humans, is something that needs celebrating, enshrining and defending and should be distinguished from the rise of AI Pablum.
There is a fair bit of daylight between fear and gatekeeping on one side and discernment and cultural leadership on the other.
I don’t want to find or hold that line on my own.
I use ChatGPT, no doubt.
I used to write by hand at school. I had poetry journals and books filled with my shocking teenage melodramatic musing and pre-pre-emo philosophy. As a teenager my step-dad brought home a crappy PC. This was a step up from a Commodore 64, but a far cry from the desktop rigs and laptops we have today.
At some point, I learned to upgrade the thing, and I got my hands on word processing software. Then, at some later stage over the last three decades, word processors got sophisticated enough to bundle spellchecking and thesaurus functionalities.
It must be over a year ago now, a friend of mine recommended Grammarly to me to help refine my writing online. If the tool is there, and it makes my life easier, I am going to use it.
My 30-year corporate career was anchored in large part in the function of process engineering. Everything in a business can be understood in terms of systems and processes. Processes are where the real magic happens because systems usually automate processes, and processes transcend systems. There are extensions of the process that happen outside the context of a system, and even today, there are manual legs, paperwork and physical steps that still occur and cannot be removed from the process or ignored. Process Engineering is a universal competency.
If you want to improve a process, one of the easiest ways to identify low-hanging fruit is twofold:
Step 1: Break the process into steps, manual and otherwise.
Step 2: Determine which of those steps are ‘value-add’ steps or ‘non-value-add’ steps. (VA vs NVA.)
The smart money from there is also twofold:
Phase 1: Automate whatever is manual because human touch in a process is where mistakes and inconsistencies are most likely to happen; and
Phase 2: Reduce the friction and overhead of all non-value-add steps, because while necessary, they aren’t adding direct value to your process.
That is why I use ChatGPT. It helps me automate a butt-load of manual non-value-add drudgery that I am likely to be inconsistent with. Who wants to be summarising long emails or posts?
And, given what ChatGPT can do, I also use it as a research assistant. Sometimes I put the mic on and dictate a long thought stream, many times 4 or 5 minute capsules of ideation and argument. And then when I am done, I get it to summarise my thesis, check for internal coherence, and research where my thesis isn’t congruent with reality.
I could not hire a team of humans to do that as efficiently as ChatGPT can do it and ChatGPT is available 24 hours a day and on weekends, whenever I am ready to go.
I get ChatGPT to summarise books, to write short blurbs for video or podcast transcripts that I record. Ain’t nobody got time for dat.
My point to all of this, is that I am not ashamed of using ChatGPT. It is a tool and I am leveraging the toolset. I recommend you all do it, wisely.
What I am stridently exposing, and arguing against, is this wave of dickheads that haven’t found a line to walk, that don’t necessarily have something of their own of real salience to say. They discover the generative writing ability that these LLMs have and they peddle it and pass it off as their own writing.
Firstly, it is painfully obvious.
ChatGPT says stuff like: “It’s not this. It’s That!” When you get used to noticing it, it becomes easy to spot and difficult to overlook.
It uses a lot of em dashes (—), which I used to love writing with because I grew up reading and emulating Tolkien and such, and it holds the right kind of space for the way I want to punctuate my writing. I want my writing to sound the way I speak in my head. I’ve stopped using em dashes until the fad dies away.
Secondly, it is disingenuous, especially on Substack, which is supposed to be a platform for writers. I am not going to make a career out of gatekeeping who writes what, but for the sake of the Craft can we not admit what an abomination it is? I am encountering people flooding the field, milking the sweet likes, on the back of a pile of drive that is so clearly written by ChatGPT, and populated in the comments section with responses so clearly written by ChatGPT.
Finally, it denigrates the Craft of Writing.
On LinkedIn and in the business world today, people are writing Job Descriptions via ChatGPT. Someone else is enlisting ChatGPT to parse that Job Description and getting the AI to tailor their CV to respond most compellingly to the advertised role. Another AI tool is processing and shortlisting the applicants, and the first time a human gets involved is when the parties converge in a meeting room to conduct an interview guided by a framing that no single human being in the room is actually informed about.
You think this shit isn’t happening on dating profiles?
If we don’t make a stand here on Substack, and elsewhere online this shit is going to get completely out of hand. What is the value of a craft that any fool can spoof? What is the value of a craft that you can’t stand up for?
Writers, if you don’t take a stand and let your opinions be known, regularly and emphatically, you’re going to lose this platform.
We’re already losing it.
PROVE IT
The fuckheads
have arrived
on Substack.
The Honeymoon period is over fellas.
Welcome to sub-Substack.
The AI-mageddon.
This is the Digital Kali Yuga.
There is no where left
to retreat.
From here it’s back to emails,
back to the bloated tick
of the blogosphere
and whatever dignified engagement
we can still scrape from the uterus
of social media.
I’ve seen the artists rally.
They will be the first to heal.
The writers are a spread field.
Some of you
are out so far ahead of the curve
you’re lighting the way.
And some of you are treating this
like Instragram,
completely oblivious
to the existence of Craft.
And the main peloton
drifting in between.
The undiscerning mob have descended.
They don’t mean harm.
Because they don’t mean anything.
In the same way a cat
will walk across a wet painting
or tip a glass off a ledge
with no sense of consequence
and will appear affronted
by the resultant alarm
of its own nuisance.
A cat will shit in your sock drawer.
It will tip the candle
set fire to the curtains.
Cats, if not housetrained
can live in their own filth.
Sub-Substack will be be widely subscribed.
Every hot thing will sizzle fresh.
No cap.
Sub-Substack will become sub-sub-Substack.
Writers
you need to tackle the scourge
and raise the standard.
You need to establish coherence
and alignment in the field.
You need to engage
in community movement.
You are all so fucking stiff.
If you don’t find your voice and use it...
The artists made a tribe if it.
If you don’t make at least a guild
you’re going to lose this space
to the Tragedy of The Commons.
All in favour of this motion,
Say ‘Aye!’
-A strong enthusiastic yes,
so we know you really care.
And don’t say anything clever
or beautiful
here.
Go and say it better
on your own Stack.
And be sure to
acknowledge the Motion.
The pen is mightier than the sword.
Because a sword can cut and defend,
but a pen can do both and then
it can also invite, welcome and lead.
Please help me
prove it.
Rocco Jarman
All those in favour, let me know. Share this sentiment. Let’s start a guild. Let’s Raise the Standard.
Let’s make a scene!
There is a fair bit of daylight between fear and gatekeeping on one side and discernment and cultural leadership on the other.
I don’t want to find or hold that line on my own.
And to be crystal clear, you don’t have to be a poet or a journalist or a career writer, you just have to have a sense of pride and respect for your craft.
There is a line we can draw about AI use, and there is a pledge we can take, and there is a way we can make a fuss about this and let our voice be heard. Many winds, one sail.
Jesus Christ! You are writers. You don’t need permission to say shit.
Yours in authenticity,
Rocco
#LetsRaiseTheStandard
If this resonates with you, please reach out to me and add your voice. Help me find the others. This is not just for essay writers or career bloggers, this is for anyone who thinks the craft of writing and connecting with humans, as humans, is something that needs enshrining and defending.
When I say real writers, I don’t mean people who identify professionally as writers, I just mean real humans who write to express themselves and share their minds and their souls through their work.