I think it is a slippery slope from using AI to assist a person in writing to using AI to generate writing. So this morning, I was a little dismayed when I received a letter from a penpal I have been writing with for a couple of months that was written by AI. Normally, I would just unfollow the penpal, which would mean that we could never write back and forth again. But instead, because her previous letters were not AI-generated, I wrote and then sent one line:
I do not appreciate AI-generated letters.
I put her on the hidden list, which means I will not see her again unless she writes a letter to me. I think she will, but if she doesn’t, that’s okay too. I don’t need her to carry on a conversation with a machine. I can do that myself.
I don’t need you to carry on a conversation with a machine. An extra person in between me and the machine is redundant.
That’s what I should have written.
It’s just lazy. If I am going to take the time to write a letter to you, I expect one back, a real one.
The problem with AI-generated letters is that they come off as patronizing. It is a little like a parent talking to a child. Condescending but in a well-meaning way.
So, it is a love/hate relationship I have with that site (Slowly). I’m still learning. It is like the early days of writing and of getting and sending notes on Open Diary. Developing friendships online is very difficult. The rules from real life are applied a little differently.
And for the record, I have been active on Slowly for about 6 months now. I have about 20 penpals.
And I still write here almost every day. But here, my writing has become more personal (and pedestrian), so I’ve been leaving most of my entries private. I write here for me to come back to next year and review what I was thinking.
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