It’s certainly no big deal in the scheme of things, but what admittedly frustrates me about this whole John Smith thing is just that I can so easily imagine a Substack called AI Philosophy 101 (or whatever) where these sorts of essays are posted honestly and with full disclosure in a way that directly acknowledges their non-human providence and even uses it in an interesting way — maybe each ends with a summary of the prompts used, or you have two different AIs write competing takes, or something like that. It seems like you really could produce an interesting AI-driven philosophy project like that if you wanted to.

But instead, all “John Smith” is doing is just using AI as a shortcut towards a cheap simulacrum of what actual human beings normally produce the old-fashioned way. The AI isn’t adding anything unique, really — it’s just doing what someone who had actual knowledge and talent would do by themselves, in order to get the sort of engagement and attention that it would normally get them. And this points to a bigger issue I have with so many AI advocates, which is that they’ll constantly talk about how AI is “changing the game,” while in reality they’re just cheating at the same old game everyone else was always playing.

Like, it’s very clear to see that “John Smith” here wants the experience of putting out pieces that others enjoy and engage with. But that experience is itself directly tied up with the fact that everyone involved is a reasonably well-informed person who actually knows what they’re talking about and can express it thoughtfully. If he doesn’t want to actually be that person, then he should use these AI tools to craft a new and different way of doing things instead of using them in a relatively uninteresting way that he must know the people he’s aiming to impress will find dishonest. And if he can’t find a unique and valuable use case that would get him honest attention, then saying “This is the future, you better adapt!” seems less like a sincere prediction and more like self-justification for someone who doesn’t want to admit that the tech they’re relying on can’t really deliver what they ultimately want.