I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era

pypt

Yeah, now it's "Here's what nobody else talks about" and "Here's the kicker" all day long.

radimm

This is exactly same struggle for me. Writing technical content about PostgreSQL and balancing my voice without sounding like LLM written is genuinely difficult. As English is not my first language, I do run into problem where the line between fix my clumsy sentence and rewrite my thought is very thin. Same with writing "boring" technical explanation and more approachable content. I'm getting pushed back for both.

thepasch

I never use an LLM to paraphrase my own voice as a matter of principle, but I’ve still been repeatedly accused of doing so because I happen to always have written structured posts, used “smart quotes,” and done that negative comparison thing (it’s genuinely not just fluff, it’s a genuinely useful way to— ah god damn it). Sigh.

dude250711

There is no grandiose "AI era". Or it started like in 1950s already. What it is going to be is a 'Slop Decade' - a much better label if you insist on having one.

andai

> This post, is written without any tools assistance I just wrote what my brain is instructing to type (might not reread it before posting). How is the author complaining about the quality of their own writing while admitting to not even bothering reading what they wrote, let alone editing it? (Also, why would using a LLM based grammar checker trigger an AI writing detector? Did it end up rewriting substantial parts of the original submission?)

amelius

Are there any good writing LLMs out there? I get that the mainstream ones have been RLHF'd to death, but surely there must be others that are capable?

keiferski

I have been writing stuff for a long time; my first internet experience was posting on forums about a Gameboy Advance game. Then in other forums, for a philosophy degree, and professionally as a copywriter and technical writer. I’ve been meaning to write up a post of my thoughts on writing and AI, but there things I’ve been thinking recently are: 1. There was a lot of slop pre-AI. In fact I’d say the majority of published writing was bad, formulaic, and just written to manipulate your emotions. So in some sense, I don’t really think pre-AI slop had more value. It’s just cheaper to make now. 2. AI has prompted me to study more off-beat writers that followed the rules of language a little less frequently. This includes a lot of people from circa 1890-1970, when experimenting with form was really in vogue. 3. Which brings me to my third point, which is that no matter how much the AI actually knows about writing, the person prompting it is limited by their own education and knowledge of writers. You can’t say, “make me a post in the style of Burroughs” if you don’t know who Burroughs was, or what his writing style was. So in a sense there is an increased importance to being educated about writing itself. Without it you’re limited in your ability to use AIs to write stuff and in your awareness of how much your non-AI written work is influenced by AI writing.

bananaflag

Can't you just... not do this? I never passed any AI writing as my own. I would feel utterly awful. Also, I love tweaking words until they sound perfect. The number of people who just nonchalantly admit that AI writes their messages is honestly scaring me.

aledevv

I want to emphasize a thought you expressed: > "..but maybe it's a good thing that most of us don't allow this technology to reframe our thoughts." No, you're not the only one experiencing this: I too had the same concerns as you: with every new thought, every new creation, I had to ask the AI's opinion, as if I were no longer able to judge, to decide, without consulting the AI (...just to be safe, you never know...). The only way to regain your creative ability is to write down your thoughts yourself, read, reread, rewrite, correct, express your opinion... What AI can't do is convey emotions.

stabbles

Are grammatical errors and typos fashionable now? Reading this post it seems the anti-thesis in the LLM era is not to edit at all, but rather write down a stream of consciousness to make it "personal".

everdrive

Not joking, buy and read books. Old books are only written by people. (and the help of an editor)

skywhopper

It’s largely a problem of how these tools are packaged, but while it’s certainly nice to have an LLM check your spelling, or review your grammar or style or usage, you should never allow them to actually edit your document directly. First of all, they will make substantive changes you didn’t intend. The meaning will get changed, errors will be introduced. Tone will be off, and as the author says, your voice will disappear. There is no single “correct” way to write something. And voice and tone are conveyed with grammatical and usage variation. Don’t give that up to a robotic average. Secondly, you will never improve, or even maintain, your own writing skills if you don’t actively engage with the suggested changes. You also won’t fully realize half the purpose of writing, which is to understand the topic better yourself . Doing the work of editing your piece will help you understand the subject even better. If you just let the machine “fix” your errors, you’ll become a worse writer and less of an expert over time.

heavyset_go

If you outsource your thinking and skills, your ability to do either atrophies. You'll become dependent on outsourcing for both. You're trading ability and competence for convenience.

epolanski

I think that AI will accelerate an already existing trend that pre dates AI meaning the global regression to the mean we're seeing in any creative field, from design to videogames, from cars to fashion.

beej71

I feel like asking it to polish or rewrite is going too far. Using it for a grammar/spell checker or thesaurus is fine, though. At least that preserves ones voice. And I've definitely used it when I can't remember that one stinking word that I know exists and is perfect for this occasion.

CrzyLngPwd

I've been a Grammarly customer for quite some time, and I have tried the AI suggestions, but it always loses something and ends up with a whiny, apologetic tone. AI always seems so verbose and wordy.

josefritzishere

For the most part, AI writing is pretty bad. It reads like a highschool kid trying to hit a minimum word requirement.

kerblang

> It means, I passed the text. Ha. Well I guess you did, _this time_. Can we not just ask an AI to correct our spelling mistakes and leave the rest alone?

solomonb

I actually find Gmail a better editor/grammar check then LLMs. It makes isolated simplifications/corrections that imo have minimal style impact and just focus on clarifying phrasing.

aidenn0

What does it say about me that when I run my writing through one of those "detect if AI" tools I seldom see a value of less than 70% confidence that the writing was AI generated?