Thanks to AI, authenticity is now at a premium.

You don't always know what writing you can trust to be real anymore, and apparently engagement automation is now a thing on places like Substack.

An AI bot took my corporate copywriting job, so I have a uniquely bitter take on the subject as a whole. But I also truly believe that AI is one of the greatest existential threats to human beings that we will ever face.

So, I don't use AI in my work. At all. For any single aspect of it. Ever.

When you read my words, however finely or poorly wrought, they are my own. I even turned off the option under my Substack settings to let AI “learn” from my writing because I've already been there, done that -- I already trained the bot (unwittingly) that stole my job. So I know how this game works.

I'm not here to get internet-famous or write the most perfect, award-winning prose. I'm here to represent something real -- mistakes, flaws, messy reality and all.

I'm here to be human.

I was going to post this video yesterday to show part of my morning routine with the hens, and then I reconsidered because I thought my hair looked too messy and my face looked too tired. Then today I decided, fuck it, I don't care about being perfect anymore. Being real is more important.