HUMAN Content for HUMAN Readers

Honestly, I had never considered AI comments until reading this. "BARF" is the only word that comes to mind. I will take zero comments over that nonsense any day. Congratulations, Sara, on making this week's leadership board ❣

Congratulations on your placement on the leaderboard. And I'm always glad to read a story that points out how AI is stealing our humanity and resources. (Academic proofreader here - it has also stolen my income).

Wooohooooo congratulations on your Leaderboard placement! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊

This is a great awareness story! Congratulations on making it on the Leaderboard 🏆 👏

I love the colour of the markers printed on your fingertips, I can feel your artistry through the image and your artwork in the background was a nice touch. The colours and all, made the image satisfying to stare at, picking out all the little details as our eyes moved along the screen. As someone who is trying to learn how to be better at my craft, remembering all the literary devices so I could both point them out and use them (this I hope will help the author to be better too as I am trying to be) , I’ve found ways to make my comments stay long and thoughtful without being too vague. Therefore, setting me apart as someone helpful and genuine (these do take a lot of time and thought) , I hope it comes across that way, lolz. I like to assume and give people the benefit of the doubt, that society is fast paced and exhausting, and shortcuts are sometimes thrown in our hands to keep our sanity in check. But I also realise that this is not the case for all, some are just lazy. But damn, that artwork, the spooky little things, one: oh I am in love. The size of the eyes, your unique style: Is she biting her bottom lip? wow; blown away is an understatement, indeed. Losing water because of AI is very troubling. It will scare people away from using it, thank you for the research, some of this I had no idea about. ♥️🤗🖤

The part about leaving the typos because they’re human really hit me. There’s something deeply honest and rare about owning the flaws instead of erasing them. You articulated a discomfort I’ve felt but couldn’t quite name. Reading should be an act of presence, not automation. Thank you for calling that out.

Hi Sara, I only recently subscribed to you, so this is the first of your stories I have read. You raise some really interesting stuff about AI. The sad part is that AI is becoming so ingrained in our lives that it will never go away; it will only increase. I have to admit I use AI sometimes(NightCafe) where I create my own image for my stories when I can't find an image to suit it. A great expose of facts that I did not know about AI. I saw a program on TV the other night about the truth behind Electric cars and the environmental impact of the nickel mined and processed for their batteries. Equally shocking.

You’ve said a lot here. And I am going to be very honest, you may not like everything I have to say here. But I’m gonna be very honest and touch on a few things you have said here. So first about people using AI to generate images for their stories. You mentioned get out and get a camera take pictures, draw something, etc. First of all not everybody has the talent to draw. Second not everybody has the ability to get out of their house or the time to seek out the sceneries or put together the scenery they need for photographs. Some people are handicapped, some people have physical illnesses, some people deal with mental illnesses. I am such a person as I take care of my mom 24/7. She is a very sick lady she cannot ever be left alone. Yes, I do have the help of caregivers. But a four hour shift with a caregiver goes really fast, even a seven hour shift. When I have those caregivers I have to use my time wisely. That means I run my errands, if I am sleep deprived I will take a nap, the last thing I have time on my list of activities to do is get out and try and find a perfect scene for a poem or story I wrote. Therefore, AI comes into play. My most popular story series right now is my Gloria cartoon series. There is no way I can draw cartoon images and make them look even slightly decent. I use AI to develop my character images. But one thing I do not do is use AI to write any parts of my stories or poems. As far as errors and typos. When it comes to my writing I am a perfectionist therefore I am going to proofread everything I do and I’m gonna proofread it a second time and edit it and write a second draft and there’s gonna be a third draft and a fourth draft sometimes. I like my writing to be lean and professional yet personal and not chaotic for the person to read. I find typos to be human, yes. But I also feel that that shows, this is gonna be where I’m honest, I feel that that shows a bit of laziness on the side of the person writing because we can all take time to proofread and proofread again. I am just being honest please do not chop my head off. Now regarding the aspect of comments that look eerily similar. Yes, there are people that do use AI to read and generate comments for stories. But this is what I have encountered myself personally when I’m reading somebody’s story and I go to comment afterward. I’ll have a few ideas in my head as to what I am going to say. Then I get down to the comments and I will notice that somebody else used this word that I was thinking and another person used that word and another person worded their comment very similar to what I was going to say. I think this happens sometimes because we’re all reading the same story or the same poem so a lot of us get or have the same reactions or the same words or thoughts pop into our heads for comments therefore we see similar comments. But that’s not to say that there aren’t some people that are using AI to generate comments. But I think some of those similar comments are just human coincidence because after all we are reading the same story that we’re commenting on. Now, why would somebody be here on vocal and using AI to write stories and to comment? Simply because there’s money to be made. Some people, unfortunately, we’ll cheat and put a few prompts in to ChatGPT or copilot or any of the other AI apps and have this story written in a matter of a minute. Then they publish it and they start making their pennies. Even dollars if they get a top story or on the leaderboard. And they all turn out another story or poem the next day and then the next day. That’s why they’re here. The vocal team is trying to cut down on this happening but it’s pretty hard to keep control of it unless you actually have a team, a large team, of human beings that are monitoring it and looking for the ear marks and so forth. But vocal obviously does not have the funds to pay a large team. So they rely on I guess some sort of AI detection tools which from what I’ve encountered the AI detection tools are not accurate their faulty. I’ve had stories that I’ve written that were completely original my words all the way through and I thought while I want to put it through AI detection app it came back like 30% written by AI. I was shocked. Because AI had nothing to do with the writing of that particular story or any of my stories for that matter. But ultimately I get what you’re saying. It is upsetting when there are people out there using AI to write an entire story. It is upsetting when people use AI to make comments. But unfortunately it’s almost impossible to stop. So I’ve taken on the philosophy that I was taught by my mom is just worry about yourself Rick. Do the best that you can do and be a success in what you do. Those that cheat will cheat but don’t let yourself be one that cheats. Anyway I found your article here to be intriguing, informative, and passionate. I enjoy your writing. I haven’t read very much of your works yet because I just recently discovered you. But I do enjoy your writing and I hope that you and I can develop a friendship here on vocal and if you’re on Facebook it would be nice to see you there also. Thank you for putting your truth and your emotions out there to share with us. P.S. Since right now I am feeding my mom with one hand and she’s holding onto the other hand this comment has been made using Google voice dictate. Please excuse the typos. Google seems to change words on this sometimes. Isn’t that ironic that I am asking excuse for my typos. 🤪🙂

AI-Generated content and comments are very prevalent on Vocal. Tbh, the comments has reduced a lot. It used to be like 50× more about a year ago. I think people did this for fast money, to end end on the Leaderboard. Not the current one, but the previous one. I don't use AI to generate art, music, or writing. But I do use ChatGPT for research purposes now instead of Google as I found it more efficient. I also use it as my therapist, just to rant and cope with my emotions. Now that you've mentioned about water, I feel guilty about it. I could go back to using Google for research purposes, but ChatGPT as my therapist has been very helpful. Wayyyy more helpful than my actual human therapist. Hmmm

Speak on it Sara! 💪🏾🔥🫶🏾 The energy angle was eye-opening! AI is so unnecessary. Thanks for this thoughtful analysis! I hope that this piece garners you a Top Story! It is so well done! 🥰

Love the way you ;laid it all out here, Sara. Rest assured, you will never find me using AI for anything. I did one experiment with an image creator and wasn't impressed with the results. As Gene mentioned below, Freelancers like him and myself are seeing more and more AI infiltration. Employers are actually asking for their hires to use it. It's hard to compete, but I won't stoop to having AI create for me. Not even in comments.

As usual, you're right. The reason people use AI to read stuff here and generate comments is easy: for money. As a freelancer I've fought for jobs for years - over a decade now. Prospective employers say they want quality, but they almost always sacrifice true quality for a low price. So why hire an actual good writer or editor from the US, UK, Australia, or Canada when they can hire someone from a third world country who will generate content for them for literal pennies on the dollar? That's even worse now that you can have AI do much of it for you. To this point, as well all know and have seen on our own accounts, you get rewarded on Vocal for likes and engagement. For many of us, it's not worth the time. But if you're in India, Africa, or South America, those $5 bonuses go a long way, so hell yes they're going to fight for them, and that may include copy and pasting comments, even if they don't necessarily make sense for a given story. Or, if it's the same comment every time. "Congrats on Top Story!" Or "please follow my content. I ams good writer and like you very goodly."

I never thought of the water resources, that's insane, I think I'll have to change my browser, because for some reason, the one I use automatically comes up with an AI answer with anything I type into google. It's insane, it even gives references for every source it's pulled. I don't understand why they have an "AI generated" option and then so many people don't even use it. How do you feel proud of yourself? How do you get any sort of gratification? I go back and read my work and I'm like.... Woah... I did that? It's the most amazing thing, and these people will never have that, if they go back, it'll be like.. AI made that, cool. Detached of feeling. I'll be honest, the only thing I do when reading is get distracted by other things sometimes, but I always circle back and finish something if I find it interesting. Sometimes with poems I'll read multiple times, but if a comment doesn't naturally come through that then I don't generally say anything, sometimes I'll say something small, but I tend to like my comments to be insightful or meaningful, the words have to move me. I wrote a poem back in 2021 and posted it with some photos on instagram and facebook, and I wanted to post it here. But for some reason, I did something I've never done before and not done since, I put the first line in google just to see what it would say, and it looked so similar that I decided to delete the poem off of vocal. I may share your stories link so other people can read your story and be informed. Thank you for posting this Sara, it's very insightful, before I was like... oh, people can do whatever they want, but nahhhh. this suckksss so bad. There are so many indigenous communities in Canada that can't even get clean water and they're using it on superficial bullshit???

I feel you and understand your frustration, but AI isn’t leaving, so be prepared for more insanity. I use it to create images and take critical looks at my work, but it’s not allowed to even make suggestions about my writing. However, the knowledge about water depletion is giving me pause. But nobody reads or writes for me. That’s mine.