THE INEFFICIENCY OF DISHONESTY

Sometimes the dishonesty in the smell of bleach, is far worse than the smell it was trying to mask. The aggressively immaculate politeness, frictionless, soothing, slightly sedated flow that says everything and means nothing. Anyway…

I saw an article recently on Medium about why no one should be bothering with individual websites anymore.

Obviously, me having a personal website, was admittedly approaching this on the defensive, heavily biased and ready to be offended, but in trepidation, like a man who hasn’t been punched yet but knows it’s coming. Yet I found myself aggravated further by a paywall the writer had placed halfway down the article. – Which is a lovely touch btw, for someone questioning the relevance of your freedom of choice.

But moving on, being someone who sees paywalls as a challenge, and when the ‘immersive reader trick’ didn’t work, I looked for his unimaginative username and found his personal website (yes, he had one, although by personal, I mean, he’d taken the time to choose a ‘theme’ for his domain, I made mine from scratch, just sayin’… sorry, anyway), and after navigating through a swamp of articles that all suspiciously orbited products he conveniently had affiliate links for, I finally found the article, free, unlocked. Still not worth it. (I’m not bitter btw, just putting that on the table next to the salt)

Anyway, to cut this long story to the same length and ignore the split ends – as they say, I never bothered to finish the article in the end, because between all the adverts and affiliate links was text produced by AI. I recognised it, could just tell. Not the obvious stuff like em dashes, but the almost soothing yet soulless flow narrative, with sentences that start with what something is not before it becomes what it is, and the obsessive use of full stops in place of commas. None of these things necessarily a sign of AI, – I do it sometimes and I’m 80% sure I’m not AI. But when scattered so generously throughout such pointless dribble, I found myself certain, and offended, or at least certainly offended.

At first I thought it was envy that bothered me, as it appears he was making a living out of this without any effort except for that of a prompt, whilst I’m over here talking to myself.

But I noticed it didn’t feel like envy, and I should know – it’s my eye colour. It felt like dishonesty, for I felt the urge to lean over and say “I know what you’re doing btw, you haven’t tricked me you dirty, rotten swine, you.”

Part of me was annoyed that I almost wasted my doomscrolling time reading it, when it would have been far more efficient to just read the one or two sentences he used as prompt, instead of making me rent the answer.

But – the lack of effort, is I think, the main cause of irritation. Because I don’t think my issue is AI. It is a tool after all, and I’ve always seen it as like how the invention of cameras was a treat to artists. I think my issue is the ‘pretence’, the performance of effort, the masquerade of a person sat behind the words, when actually it’s a vending machine that spits out paragraphs.

I bet he hasn’t even read it. Just dumped it online and walked away, like someone farting in a room and leaving others to process the atmosphere.

If you used AI to help you write, fine. If you used it to generate the whole thing, fine. If you used it because your brain’s a jar of butterflies and you needed a net, also fine, but don’t sell me a human handshake and then pass me a printed receipt.

I use AI too, for SEO, and grammar checking. But I’ll never allow it to replace the only thing I actually have: a voice, a point of view, and the decency to spend my time before I ask for yours.

Because the moment you publish something you haven’t even bothered to read, you’re not writing anymore – you’re just littering, but digitally, and I’m the one stepping in it.

But then, maybe that’s why AI guy is making a living out of it, and I’m here writing for no one except a minor distraction for the Google bot. Maybe personal websites are dying. Or maybe they’re about to matter more than ever, because they’re one of the last places still messy, inconsistent, and human.

Because if the facts are free now, and explanations are instant, then the only real currency left is your voice, so make it heard.