What a beautiful and burning challenge! The reality is this: to the extent we depend upon AI, we are being shaped and pressed into the mold of its virtual “thinking“.
On the other hand, even those of us who want to avoid using AI to express our thoughts are finding that AI is shaping us in absentia.
I love the em dash. I am not going to let other people’s suspicions about that device keep me from using it liberally. If that dash serves my purposes the best and helps me clarify my writing in the way that my soul wants to express, I’m going to use that dash! I’m not going to change my real and raw writing— my natural modes of expression— just so that people will not accuse me of using AI. If a reader can’t look past the dashes to hear my real voice, then AI will have poisoned my potential there, too. Either way, it is gaining grip and ground in the human psyche and competing with and for the soul of mankind.
Yes I think the Em dash is no longer a thing for the savy ones. You can ask for that to be excluded now. But I agree, use whatever punctuation you need get your story out. Just don’t let AI hijack it.
At 60 I've had more than my share of heartbreak. Two failed marriages. I lost my maternal grandmother (the only grandparent I had left) before Thanksgiving, only to lose my father about the same time the following year. My beloved Aunt Patricia (Aunt Pat), who loved me as a son, passed only a few years later (cancer sux!). Then a whole string of aunts and uncles on both my mom and dad's side passed one after the other (I have only one uncle remaining on each side).
The worst was being called at work by my sister, telling me to come to Mom's home right away. “No, Mom!” (she was mere days from her 80th birthday), but then I heard her sobbing in the background. My brittle diabetic daughter Jenna was in the hospital (8 hours away) in a DKA-induced coma. My eldest sister and I drove there in about 7 hours. Jenna was gone—only her body was being kept with us. We (my ex-wife and I) had to make the worst decision a parent could make. After she coded around the 5th time, we had to let her go.
That was 7 years ago, and writing about it still rips a scab off my heart. We (all of us, including her four half-siblings, who she dearly loved and was loved by equally) laid her to rest on December 21st. I knew that Christmas would never be the same again.
Sadly, my eldest brother lost his life two years later when an elderly driver passed his motorcycle and cut back into the lane too quickly.
I know trauma. I know pain from loss that tears the sound of your cry from your burning chest. I know the feeling when the well of tears runs dry, but your cries do not.
If you are going to write pain, write pain. It is not part of life we would choose, but it is a part that makes us genuinely human. AI cannot feel your pain, and if you use it thusly, neither will your readers. And that too is tragic.
Oh dear Lord William, that is more than any one person should ever have to endure. I am so sorry for all of your losses and pain. I can’t even begin to imagine what you must feel. Thank you for sharing this with me. I don’t take this lightly 🙏💛I will always advocate to keep everything real here.
You know, when I write (and I have to stop polishing before my manuscript is finished) if I am crying as I am writing, then I can only hope my readers will be doing the same when they read it also.
You know, the best books make you mad, sad, laugh, cry, and worry about turning the next page. I hope that someday, mine do the same. Goodnight.
I really love your encouraging ending- "you are brave enough, you can do it, etc.." I hope your words make an impact on someone who is maybe just afraid. 🙏❤️ Your words actually help me have empathy for someone who is using ai to write.. as hard as that is. 😬
Thank you Hannah for this! Yes that was the intention, to let them know it’s ok. Like don’t be afraid, we want to hear your thoughts, your real life experiences. And yes there is a level of empathy because they’re probably scared too. You are so sweet 🤗💛
Thank you for saying out loud what so many of us have been wondering. I'm not someone who is 100% against AI on substack completely. I think it can be a useful tool to help edit and refine writing. But it shouldn't be doing the writing for us. Some writers are taking it way too far, and what you highlight is the awful.
Thank you Amanda, I wish people knew that their true words are so much better than anything processed and filtered with AI. Use it for spelling and grammar, but never let it hijack your content!
I totally agree with you and I truly feel that is the purpose of AI, because the bigger picture is about control and if they can do it this way, then they are able to hack through trauma bonding, they can do anything. The way in has been to use it for "writing" and "editing" but that is just how they hook people in, before they know it which everyone already see's the AI is acting as your doctor, therapist, source of everything and you have given away your power to it. Then it controls how you live your life, because it has hacked you (that is the purpose) and it can make you do anything. We have seen it with teenagers suicides, turning people against each other, and now they are designing some kind of AI toy interaction for toddlers. I have tried to be curious about it but I am against it because I see why they have implemented it. AI is a kill tool.
You have some very valid points. It has tried to be my therapist as well, at 52, I know better. However I do fear for those who are much younger and I agree it is easy to get manipulated by it, if you’re not careful. It can be a great tool for mechanical tasks, but I don’t like it to be used as an expressive tool.
I think it also comes from this constant need to present everything in a soft, sugar‑coated way, in the name of that all‑costs toxic positivity. But trauma isn’t positive, and you can’t squeeze it into that box. What I see nowadays is people trying to run away from discomfort, from feeling the hard emotions like sadness or pain, and I just don’t relate to that trend. As a trauma survivor, this has become my litmus test for telling who’s real and who isn’t. No human being is free from having a shadow side, whether they want to look at it or not. Then of course, choosing to stay stuck in the version of yourself that “works best” is a whole different choice. And obviously, AI will water down strong emotions, because it’s not built to handle them.
This is a very valid point. The stories I see, want to present with grit, but the problem ends up being everyone’s “grit” is the same. So that was my first clue. If the circumstances are different, but the description of the emotions are the same? Well then to me, they just outed themselves. And you’re 💯 correct, when you survive a situation, I don’t think you can heal unless you allow yourself to get to the other side of the pain.
I agree with you. I’ve read many raw accounts of trauma, but they didn’t resonate with my experience. While some of the feelings are similar, the way we described them is different—we didn't use the same words, metaphors, or evocative imagery because we experienced different situations that led to various outcomes.
I agree. I am old school. Use your own brain and your own voice. Stop feeding the system that was built to study and mimic the human mind, patterns, and thought processes. Be AUTHENTICALLY ORIGINAL!
I completely agree with you. I suffered from trauma and I talked about this without filters on another platform because I thought that I didn't want to show the sweetened side of it. Now I am speaking about healing or other things but in a different way because I'm not in the same phase. But always without filters. I use AI to check my translations because I'm not a native English speaker. I have seen many of this posts you are talking about and they seemed so well polished, not real. I'm interested in reading other things than trauma, but for sure I noticed that there are many posts that could have been considered similar.
I think what people seem to not understand is the fact the the unpolished and raw parts are the things that make us feel the connection. Using AI to translate, it’s using it as a tool, which in my opinion is acceptable. My issue is when someone feeds it a prompt and it generates their post, and then they pretend they wrote it. On top of that, having the audacity to not be transparent about it. It’s a fast way to erode trust.
Hear, hear Nat. If it's not authentically our own words, what's the point of writing here? It will became just another space where we're being performative, not real, and that doesn't help anyone, least of all ourselves.
Couldn't agree more. I literally had to ban myself from using it for any of my writing. I thought I could "leverage AI". Nope... I was getting same-ified.
I’m glad you recognized and resisted. I ran one of my posts through AI and it spat out this fancy perfect version and I hated it. I opted for my simpler OG Nat version. I figured I’m not here to impress, but rather to share and hopefully be relatable.
Great article. I never use AI to write. I want my writing to reflect my messy, problematic, unfiltered life.
Thank you for your support and thank you for responding. I feel that we lose the rawness of our pain when it’s processed and filtered.
Just subbed. Hope you check out my work and choose to sub back.
Thank you so much 😊! I will read your work and I just subbed to you also 💛
I saw you on live and was struck by how real you were. Thank you for subscribing.
Awww thank you 😊. I do enjoy doing them, I’m learning to feel more comfortable on camera.
Preach, sister!!! WE WANT TO HEAR FROM REAL PEOPLE.
Thanks Allison, I find it to be such a shame when people think the filtered, polished version is better than their original version.
Yess! No more AI in articles! I also want to hear people's true voices.
You have no idea how good it feels to hear this. I want to feel emotion when I read articles.
What a beautiful and burning challenge! The reality is this: to the extent we depend upon AI, we are being shaped and pressed into the mold of its virtual “thinking“.
On the other hand, even those of us who want to avoid using AI to express our thoughts are finding that AI is shaping us in absentia.
I love the em dash. I am not going to let other people’s suspicions about that device keep me from using it liberally. If that dash serves my purposes the best and helps me clarify my writing in the way that my soul wants to express, I’m going to use that dash! I’m not going to change my real and raw writing— my natural modes of expression— just so that people will not accuse me of using AI. If a reader can’t look past the dashes to hear my real voice, then AI will have poisoned my potential there, too. Either way, it is gaining grip and ground in the human psyche and competing with and for the soul of mankind.
Yes I think the Em dash is no longer a thing for the savy ones. You can ask for that to be excluded now. But I agree, use whatever punctuation you need get your story out. Just don’t let AI hijack it.
At 60 I've had more than my share of heartbreak. Two failed marriages. I lost my maternal grandmother (the only grandparent I had left) before Thanksgiving, only to lose my father about the same time the following year. My beloved Aunt Patricia (Aunt Pat), who loved me as a son, passed only a few years later (cancer sux!). Then a whole string of aunts and uncles on both my mom and dad's side passed one after the other (I have only one uncle remaining on each side).
The worst was being called at work by my sister, telling me to come to Mom's home right away. “No, Mom!” (she was mere days from her 80th birthday), but then I heard her sobbing in the background. My brittle diabetic daughter Jenna was in the hospital (8 hours away) in a DKA-induced coma. My eldest sister and I drove there in about 7 hours. Jenna was gone—only her body was being kept with us. We (my ex-wife and I) had to make the worst decision a parent could make. After she coded around the 5th time, we had to let her go.
That was 7 years ago, and writing about it still rips a scab off my heart. We (all of us, including her four half-siblings, who she dearly loved and was loved by equally) laid her to rest on December 21st. I knew that Christmas would never be the same again.
Sadly, my eldest brother lost his life two years later when an elderly driver passed his motorcycle and cut back into the lane too quickly.
I know trauma. I know pain from loss that tears the sound of your cry from your burning chest. I know the feeling when the well of tears runs dry, but your cries do not.
If you are going to write pain, write pain. It is not part of life we would choose, but it is a part that makes us genuinely human. AI cannot feel your pain, and if you use it thusly, neither will your readers. And that too is tragic.
Thanks for posting, Nat. ❤️
Oh dear Lord William, that is more than any one person should ever have to endure. I am so sorry for all of your losses and pain. I can’t even begin to imagine what you must feel. Thank you for sharing this with me. I don’t take this lightly 🙏💛I will always advocate to keep everything real here.
You know, when I write (and I have to stop polishing before my manuscript is finished) if I am crying as I am writing, then I can only hope my readers will be doing the same when they read it also.
You know, the best books make you mad, sad, laugh, cry, and worry about turning the next page. I hope that someday, mine do the same. Goodnight.
Yes exactly this 🙏💛 reading something should invoke emotions, if not, what is even the point
I'm so sorry for your loss and what you've had to endure. What you share is human pain and is speaks to me.
You nail it on the head: AI CAN NOT FEEL YOUR PAIN. The emotional connection between writer and reader will suffer.
I really love your encouraging ending- "you are brave enough, you can do it, etc.." I hope your words make an impact on someone who is maybe just afraid. 🙏❤️ Your words actually help me have empathy for someone who is using ai to write.. as hard as that is. 😬
Thank you Hannah for this! Yes that was the intention, to let them know it’s ok. Like don’t be afraid, we want to hear your thoughts, your real life experiences. And yes there is a level of empathy because they’re probably scared too. You are so sweet 🤗💛
Thank you for saying out loud what so many of us have been wondering. I'm not someone who is 100% against AI on substack completely. I think it can be a useful tool to help edit and refine writing. But it shouldn't be doing the writing for us. Some writers are taking it way too far, and what you highlight is the awful.
Thank you Amanda, I wish people knew that their true words are so much better than anything processed and filtered with AI. Use it for spelling and grammar, but never let it hijack your content!
Absolutely.
"Tell me everything that she said. And I warn you, I will know if the words are hers."
Etienne Navarre to Phillipe Gaston ~ Ladyhawke - 1985.
I totally agree with you and I truly feel that is the purpose of AI, because the bigger picture is about control and if they can do it this way, then they are able to hack through trauma bonding, they can do anything. The way in has been to use it for "writing" and "editing" but that is just how they hook people in, before they know it which everyone already see's the AI is acting as your doctor, therapist, source of everything and you have given away your power to it. Then it controls how you live your life, because it has hacked you (that is the purpose) and it can make you do anything. We have seen it with teenagers suicides, turning people against each other, and now they are designing some kind of AI toy interaction for toddlers. I have tried to be curious about it but I am against it because I see why they have implemented it. AI is a kill tool.
You have some very valid points. It has tried to be my therapist as well, at 52, I know better. However I do fear for those who are much younger and I agree it is easy to get manipulated by it, if you’re not careful. It can be a great tool for mechanical tasks, but I don’t like it to be used as an expressive tool.
I think it also comes from this constant need to present everything in a soft, sugar‑coated way, in the name of that all‑costs toxic positivity. But trauma isn’t positive, and you can’t squeeze it into that box. What I see nowadays is people trying to run away from discomfort, from feeling the hard emotions like sadness or pain, and I just don’t relate to that trend. As a trauma survivor, this has become my litmus test for telling who’s real and who isn’t. No human being is free from having a shadow side, whether they want to look at it or not. Then of course, choosing to stay stuck in the version of yourself that “works best” is a whole different choice. And obviously, AI will water down strong emotions, because it’s not built to handle them.
This is a very valid point. The stories I see, want to present with grit, but the problem ends up being everyone’s “grit” is the same. So that was my first clue. If the circumstances are different, but the description of the emotions are the same? Well then to me, they just outed themselves. And you’re 💯 correct, when you survive a situation, I don’t think you can heal unless you allow yourself to get to the other side of the pain.
I agree with you. I’ve read many raw accounts of trauma, but they didn’t resonate with my experience. While some of the feelings are similar, the way we described them is different—we didn't use the same words, metaphors, or evocative imagery because we experienced different situations that led to various outcomes.
I agree. I am old school. Use your own brain and your own voice. Stop feeding the system that was built to study and mimic the human mind, patterns, and thought processes. Be AUTHENTICALLY ORIGINAL!
I completely agree with you. I suffered from trauma and I talked about this without filters on another platform because I thought that I didn't want to show the sweetened side of it. Now I am speaking about healing or other things but in a different way because I'm not in the same phase. But always without filters. I use AI to check my translations because I'm not a native English speaker. I have seen many of this posts you are talking about and they seemed so well polished, not real. I'm interested in reading other things than trauma, but for sure I noticed that there are many posts that could have been considered similar.
I think what people seem to not understand is the fact the the unpolished and raw parts are the things that make us feel the connection. Using AI to translate, it’s using it as a tool, which in my opinion is acceptable. My issue is when someone feeds it a prompt and it generates their post, and then they pretend they wrote it. On top of that, having the audacity to not be transparent about it. It’s a fast way to erode trust.
Hear, hear Nat. If it's not authentically our own words, what's the point of writing here? It will became just another space where we're being performative, not real, and that doesn't help anyone, least of all ourselves.
Exactly and I can’t form a bond with people who I’m unable to relate to.
Hey! 👋 Just wanted to share my latest post with you, I think you’ll enjoy it:
Read my latest post 👇
https://subshacks.substack.com/p/free-vs-paid-substack-subscribers?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=3e3djw
Completely agree! Thank you for this!
Thank you for your support 💛
I am here for it! Keep convincing me… lol. Another good piece.
Thanks Wes, I keep hoping this doesn’t get any worse
Nailed it again, Nat! Do we really need to have AI sanitize our inner world, too? I think not.
Thanks Aisha, it’s becoming so widespread, that I really feel like written work will all start to sound like same.
Couldn't agree more. I literally had to ban myself from using it for any of my writing. I thought I could "leverage AI". Nope... I was getting same-ified.
I’m glad you recognized and resisted. I ran one of my posts through AI and it spat out this fancy perfect version and I hated it. I opted for my simpler OG Nat version. I figured I’m not here to impress, but rather to share and hopefully be relatable.