I guess the fact that that NYT book reviewer used AI to write a review will be the discourse for a day or two, but it’s really a sideshow. I pointed this out in my review of Language Machines, but the 800 word book review is already effectively AI generated. It’s a set form that’s curdled into kitsch—why wouldn’t you use AI to generate it? I’m sure the review in question is not really any different from the other stuff published there, full of boilerplate cliches and vague generalizations. I checked out another review by the author and the last two paragraphs both start with “It’s not x, it’s y.” Is this AI generated? Who cares! I’m increasingly convinced that the only way to write now is in formally inventive ways that push the limits of language. Clear, easily digestible sentences, except when done really masterfully, are over. We need really long, deranged sentences, where the reviewer puts themself in the story or does something crazy in a book review, like introduces a made up philosophical dialogue, or goes on a tangent that becomes the review itself, or…I don’t know, think of something. We need new forms.