The AI Dilemma in the World of Writing

Recently, I published an open letter to Vocal to voice my frustrations about my experiences with the platform over the past months. To sum it up: Almost all my stories were flagged as AI-generated content or as "not complying with quality guidelines". Each time my story was not approved, I contacted Support to explain what had happened. Some emails and hours to days later, someone at Support would publish my story manually. However, the problem kept repeating itself without any improvement. After yet another story was not approved, I decided to write my open letter to Vocal, which I also shared with Support. In the letter, I said I was leaving Vocal. But, as you can see, I am still here. So what happened?

After my last email to Vocal support and my attempt to publish my open letter to the platform (it got flagged as well), things started changing. Right when I had made up my mind to leave the platform for good, something surprising happened. First, Vocal Team subscribed to my account, next, my two flagged stories were published manually, and lastly, I got an email from a Support employee. Below, I have added a screenshot of the message that I received. It was a great relief to me to see that Support was willing to listen to my case and take steps to improve the situation. I was also glad that my stories were published and I was added to a list so my content wouldn't get flagged as AI again. However, what was far more interesting to me, was reading about the dilemma that Vocal is facing with AI-generated content. I was so focused on my own struggles with starting out as a blog writer, that I hadn't thought about how the experience must be for writing platforms like Vocal. Lately, a lot of poor-quality AI content has been appearing on blogging websites like Medium, Vocal, and others. This is quite a new development that came upon all of us rather quickly, without much warning. Suddenly, writing platforms are dealing with a lot of artificial content flooding in, without having been able to prepare for it. Although there are systems to detect AI-generated content, these of course are very new as well and still need a lot of improvement. My communication with Vocal Support made me realize something I hadn't up to now: Not only writers are suffering under the development of AI-generated content, writing platforms are equally facing a dilemma. In this phase of transition, the main question is, "How to distinguish human from artificial content?"

First of all, I want to take a moment to spread awareness about the fact that we are all struggling with the influx of AI technology in our own ways. Content creators now have to compete with artificial content created by machines. Content platforms need to find a way to detect and block poor-quality AI content without hurting human writers in the process. Some people are losing their jobs because of AI. There are even studies coming out that show that AI is having a negative impact on the environment.

Recently, a study was conducted by researchers at the University of Massachusetts to determine how much energy is used to train certain popular large AI models. According to the results, training can produce about 626,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, or the equivalent of around 300 round-trip flights between New York and San Francisco – nearly 5 times the lifetime emissions of the average car.

In short, we are all in this AI boat together. We all need to find a way to deal with the new development of Artificial Intelligence impacting our world in many ways. Of course, the technology also positively influences our society in many ways. For instance, AI has enabled us to enhance surgical procedures so that more advanced treatments have become available to us. There are even studies that state that AI will actually positively impact the job market. Like with any new technology in history, it is perfectly normal that we have concerns about how it will impact our daily lives. When trains were first introduced, many people were afraid of this new form of transportation and refused to use it. Nowadays, we don't even think twice about taking a train. In the end, every new development needs time. We need time to get used to it and find ways to handle whatever unexpected consequences that come with the new technology. When it comes to AI, it will be important that we focus on redefining bioethics to avoid unnecessary suffering because of the effects of machine-generated content and machine-operated systems.

As for blogging platforms specifically, they will all need to find their way of handling AI-generated content over time. Medium, for example, has stated that the platform will not actively scan for AI content but when machine-generated articles are discovered that have not been explicitly labeled as AI by authors, they will not be promoted to readers. In the end, each blogging website will need to determine for itself how it handles the dilemma of distinguishing human from artificial content. As writers, we can be patient with those who publish our content for us, knowing that we are all facing this new challenge together.

Although we do not know what the future will bring, we can choose to stick together and be understanding of everyone's personal struggles, instead of getting frustrated with others over something that we are all learning to deal with as we can. Especially in such a rapidly changing world, it is important to cultivate patience when it comes to interacting with each other. Above all, we will need empathy and compassion for our fellow human beings more now than ever. This is something that cannot be created by AI and it's what sets us apart as human beings.