AN APOLOGY AND A BIT OF A RANT
Apologies to All Writers Who May Genuinely Write Stories and Poems that Read Like AI
Sorry but not sorry folks
Sorry to anyone I may have falsely accused but not sorry because I’m just so damn sick and tired of seeing people that either are robots or write like robots. Medium is making a push toward quality. Heck, even ILLUMINATION has pivoted and issued quality standards and thus I’ve returned to the fold as a non-publishing consulting editor. That means I’m around to help editors with questions about compliance, help writers who want a mentor (but not on how to make money), help formulate policy, etc.
I digressed.
I’ve seen publications on Medium that say they will reject anything that their editors feel was AI generated. No debate and no proof required. That’s how I feel. The free online detection programs provide too many false negative and positives to be useful tools. The best AI detector is my intuition. If writers don’t include pieces of themselves, or write without emotion, or write like they are providing or following an instruction manual, my internal AI detector alarm bells start ringing. Poetry that reads like it’s borrowed from too many nursery rhymes screams machine learned. If my personal detection algorithm gives a false alarm, I’m sorry but not sorry as it’s just not good writing.
A couple of hours ago, I had enough.
A writer I subscribe to for his features of other writers started writing poetry. I gave him the benefit of extreme doubt for a while. Until today when he self-published four formulaic and not short pieces of poetry within an hour — two of them only five minutes apart. I commented in one:
Here’s a tanka I riff off in reply to all the poems you published today:
AI poetry Lacking human emotion Void souless vessel Publish four poems an hour Do you take us all for fools
My single clap, single highlight and the comment will neverthelss trigger the new MPP algo to reward you.
He replied that my comment sounded like AI as it lacked emotion and empathy.¹`
Ha. Frustration is an emotion and that I hurt his feelings does not equate with lack of empathy.
I expected him to say that he published them right on the heels of one another because that’s his M.O. with all his features. Then I might have said, ok, my bad (but with my message delivered).
Instead, he said it must have been a glitch. B.S.
So why am I writing this piece now? Because I still feel badly even though I think I’m right. Why do I feel badly even though I think I’m right? Because I don’t lack empathy. I think I’m feeling his upset in my stomach.
I’m feeling better already.
Comments from readers that I acted wrongly would be fine.
Related to my thoughts on quality writing with vulnerability and soul:
In Rama I create, with soul energy surging through my body, inspiring me and breathing wind into my sails,
¹In fairness, I should include his full response:
“Marcus, I must admit, I didn’t see this coming, especially not in this manner. It’s as if the fact that articles can be self-published at any time slipped through the cracks. I don’t mean to jump to conclusions, but one might even think that even an AI could display more human emotion and empathy than what your words have shown here.
You know, I’ve genuinely enjoyed our conversations over these past months, which is why I find myself taken aback by this. It caught me off guard. I’m truly sorry if you have a different perspective of me, but I can’t let this slide. I wish you all the best, and I genuinely hope you take care of yourself.”
I replied, “I wish you well too.”
To his credit, he has not blocked me. I’ve been blocked for much less.
