AI and real breasts

In the 1991 movie, LA Story, Steve Martin’s character is in bed with the character portrayed by Sarah Jessica Parker. Martin says, “Your breasts feel weird.“ To which Parker casually replies, “That’s because they’re real.“ We’ve reached that point with commercial writing and generative artificial intelligence. Some clients are so paranoid that contractors might be using AI, that they’re calling out human-written content because it sticks out from the gray, banal, cliché-filled drivel that they have become used to in the corporate world.

Image from ChatGPT

This demonstrates a couple of things. One, is that AI tools are starting to become ubiquitous and the other that the corporate standard is not “the best available.“ It’s “good enough“ or worse, “what we’re used to.“ That's great news for AI companies. The statistical middle is where large language models excel. They’ve been trained on decades of average writing and corporate speak. They’ve literally been training all of their silicon “lives” for this moment.

It was much the same in the 1980s when word processors became widely available. There was lots of mediocre writing because most people are mediocre writers. In the 1990s, it was the same when consumer page-layout software debuted, because most people only think that they are graphic artists (think Comic Sans.) Ironically, the above is the literal cause of the banality of AI tools–all of that mediocrity was used to train them.

Some writers have taken to including disclaimers that their material was human written. Of course, the next addition to AI prompts will be to routinely include such a disclaimer even in AI-generated content. This struggle can only end with a general acceptance of AI-based writing tools.

In these dialogues about AI involvement in social media posts, many people overestimate their ability to perceive humanity. Generative AI will certainly continue to improve its ability to effectively simulate human origin. If readers can’t accurately discern AI sourcing, then that value will be based purely on content, reputation, and branding.

Without in-person meetings, “human connection” is largely imaginary — even when real. Whether one’s long-distance romantic relationship is with a human or a chatbot is functionally a philosophical concern, if you can’t tell the difference. Increasingly, many people won’t care — or even want to know.