I saw AI playing the role of timid scribe everywhere in my own writing. Where I might write "altar-call energy," AI defaults to "enthusiasm." Where I talk about "collecting screenshots like a doomsday prepper," it recommends "documenting examples."

"Everyone sounds polished, templated, safe but at the expense of tone, texture and authenticity. It's not that we're copying AI; we are letting AI rewrite us into the same beige, efficient mold, and that's the subtle erosion of individuality that should worry us most."

When I first saw this, I thought “Did anyone read this?” That’s always the question when encountering something that you think is god awful. But in the AI era, I found myself asking a follow-up question: “Did anyone write this?”