132 Comments
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JR's avatar

I look forward to every post. Always really high quality investigative journalism delivered with style. You rock.

The Drey Dossier's avatar

That makes me so happy to hear! I really enjoyed writing/making this one.

(0v0)'s avatar

Go on. Make me believe in journalism again. This is very good reporting.

The Drey Dossier's avatar

thank you for making me believe in journalism again too (:

Mike C.'s avatar

It seems like we are very quickly approaching the crossroads of AI being too much like real life and real life getting awfully similar to how AI works. FFS man I feel like we are headed to a dark place.

Annie North 🍁🍂's avatar

First and foremost, thank you so much for doing all of this research! It truly is incredible the subjects you research and tell us about!

Second. I might send this post up one of my daughter's teachers. My daughter is in highschool and the class' teacher teaches psychology. She will find this fascinating and most likely infuriating. She's told me that one of the most difficult things right now is being able to tell if a student has used ai/chat gbt on a paper that she's assigned.

For me, this is super stress inducing. I hate questioning if something is authentic. Thank you again!

The Drey Dossier's avatar

Please do. I’ve gotten so many DMs from students who say their work is being wrongly flagged and they don’t know what to do about it. The simplest thing any of us can do right now is educate ourselves and each other on the standards of the tools being used to make these decisions.

Barbara Hallahan's avatar

There is a feature in Microsoft Word that is difficult to block. It can rewrite segments of your document if you touch the wrong key or possibly just on its own. It is copilot. I found it altering text in a manuscript and ended up abandoning writing on Word. (The alterations were rubbish, too.)

I bought Scrivner, which is a standalone, and can be used without linking to the internet. Since AI scrapes most of what we type, AI is plagiarizing us so it will be more and more difficult to decide which generated which.

Jamie's avatar

everyone needs to shut off copilot completly on OS.

And, why aren't you using open source OpenOffice?

or, for that matter, Linux?

do business with Bill Gates and you get what you asked for. Evil

Barbara Hallahan's avatar

I found a workaround for my work and I have only so much energy to relearn platforms. It is a matter of picking my battles. Younger people can and should pick their own. At three-quarters of a century in years I have done as much of my part as I am able for.

Jack Horner's avatar

Hi Barbara, I understand the hesitancy, so I'd just like to share not only that OpenOffice is free (both as in beer and as in liberty), but it is designed to be a drop in replacement for Microsoft's Office programmes so the learning curve is - hopefully - extremely shallow.

I often claim that revolutions succeed only when the grandmas are on board and I've dreamt for decades that we can defund evil bigtech with OpenSource software, built through love.

Happy writing, whatever you use though!

Jamie's avatar

Another reason factory style education needs to go:

Our Education System: to “Destroy Freedom of Will [of the Student]”, By Design

https://jamiea811023.substack.com/p/our-education-system-to-destroy-freedom

Eliza Stein-Dodd's avatar

Thanks for this video. It is truly thought provoking; and as an artist, it uncovers a truly devastating situation for our and future generations.

The Experimental Marketer's avatar

I am so shocked that the AI policy did not receive the same coverage as this book recall! Thank you so bringing this all up! I think everyone who is concerned about hoe AI is impacting the country should call their congressperson asap… 😱

Alberto Hernandez's avatar

I feel like this what the Etymology Nerd, Alex Aleksic talks about in his videos on Youtube, here on Substack, AND his book AlgoSpeak. We really just mimic what we hear naturally, so of course we're all gonna copy AI just like so many online ppl use AAVE or incel speak. We really need to regulate this shit :/

Gloria Ware's avatar

Yes, I've noticed this AI "dialect" showing up in human speech too and soooo much content!

The Drey Dossier's avatar

I noticed it in podcast conversations sometimes- there will be certain phrases I hear as two people are just chatting that trigger the ‘is that AI?’ part of my brain

yellie Blue's avatar

Poor Mia, this is terrifying. My niece is a writer working on her master's in American literature. I've read every single thing she has written since she could write. I've always known she would be a writer, she's been doing it since she learned how to write and read. I would be devistated and on a war path if she was ever accused of using AI knowing she most certainly did not. I imagine that's how Mia's loved ones feel. AI will ruin us all. 😞

Barbara Hallahan's avatar

Have her look into word processing programs that do not have built-in "helpers" ie spell check, grammar suggestions and Word's copilot. That will protect her. Compose off the internet, on airplane mode if you are paranoid.

code name: THE BEAST's avatar

Is it AI ruining us or a small set of terrible people using AI as an excuse to be mean to people? I'd argue it's more just terrible people who get a rise out of being terrible to people

rain's avatar

favorite Internet human; thanks for everything

Sydney's avatar

Whenever you post I am SAT!

The Drey Dossier's avatar

Whenever you guys comment I am kicking my feet

Dale Case's avatar

What would it take to wake people up to the fact that human credibility and our humanity, itself, is on the line here with apparently no one who cares.

I have a bit of a dim view of the human race but surely we deserve better than that.

Zach Therrien's avatar

Thank you for all you do. I’m not sure how I found your videos but I’m glad I did, and I sincerely thank you for the work you’ve been doing. I will recommend you to anyone I know that wants to learn more about what’s going on but doesn’t know where to turn.

The Drey Dossier's avatar

That Means a lot Zach thank you

Emma's avatar

a couple people on goodreads, including a guy named Brandon who said he has a blurb on the cover or something, said the original artist was at some point compensated. Based on just the few reviews I just skimmed, I am guessing that was before mid January of this year. Personally I want to be warned if AI is used, label it like we do organic etc, just so that I can choose how I spend my money.

Shiran Habekost's avatar

Great Post

Leisa Peterson's avatar

I watched some of that video about "this book is ai slop" and none of it made any sense to me. Nothing they said (to me) indicated the book was ai. It made me wonder about the whole story and now what you are saying here confirms my suspicions. It's ridiculous and I felt like they were searching for someone to blame for ai... not someone who was writing a book that I hope turns incredibly successful for her as she goes back to self-publishing it asap.

Paper Crow Press's avatar

I felt the same way when I watched the video back in January.

Leisa Peterson's avatar

Glad to know I am not alone with this...

Lilly in the Valley's avatar

So thankful I found you! You are one of my favourite internet humans and I appreciate and value your work so much.

And I appreciate that you don't constantly hound for likes and subscriptions - I know I'm not alone in this. It gets exhausting to be constantly badgered for paid subscriptions. I support independent journalists, content creators and artists as I am able and I know everyone needs to put food on the table but my heavens, it's a huge turn off. There's no pressure from you and it's so refreshing! Thank you ❤️❤️❤️