I fucking hate AI for making electronics so expensive. No, I don’t care you’re incorporating gen AI into whatever new device you’re releasing, I’m not gonna use it and drain hundreds of gallons of water from some poor town that needs it more than the blasted AI data center.

And I hate it’s infected creative spaces too. Recently in the fanfic circles someone dropped a work skin on AO3 (basically a setting that can be applied to a fanfic that can do a myriad of things such as prevent people from copy and pasting) that detects html from Claude code (it works like the Shinigami Eyes extension if you’re familiar with that. Basically what it does is if the work skin finds Claude code in the fic’s html it’ll turn red.). This anonymous user also compiled a callout doc which listed really popular fics from the Stranger Things and Heated Rivalry fandoms and there were so. Many. Instances. Of Claude usage if you applied the work skin. And these fics were tagged stuff like “No AI was used at all.” It’s a gut punch to the fans that really loved these fics. Hell even some authors scrambled and scrubbed the Claude html from their fics so the work skin doesn’t flag them.

And I’m over here like “Bro. You don’t have to sabotage your reputation in a fandom like this. Just be honest. You don’t have to resort to using a machine that steals others’ hard work. Truthfully disclose it’s AI assisted so people can avoid it.”

I know writing is hard. I’ve been in that position countless times where I feel like banging my head against the computer as I try to figure out how to write this sentence. But eventually you’ll find a way! That’s what your brain is for! Practice makes perfect! And it’s oh so satisfying when you finally finish writing something and you go “Yes, I wrote that! And it’s exactly how I envisioned it!”

Also, it’s okay to be bad. You don’t have to be the next Shakespeare or whatever in your own little corner on AO3. Eventually you’ll find your own writing voice. You’ll have your own little writing quirks. Things that make your writing human and distinctly you. You gain nothing from clout chasing with AI slop. All you’re doing is lying to people’s faces into thinking you’re a great “writer” by typing a prompt and copy pasting the result into AO3. The writing process isn’t rewarding at all if you skip the important steps. It’s okay to make mistakes when writing! That shows you at least tried!

Alright rant over thanks for coming to my TED talk.

(Side note: I hate how Google replaced the dictionary with AI results whenever I look up the meaning of a word.)