[DIGEST] Cyborgs vs scabs

Your weekly stackable roundup

Hi friends,

With our Future of Publishing Mastermind kicking off at the end of the month, I’ve been thinking a lot about AI and specifically our relationship with it.

Talking with a lot of creatives brought me to one overall conclusion.

I am generally pro-AI when it makes you a cyborg and anti-AI when it makes you a scab.

What does that mean?

If you are a writer and you want to use AI to help augment, improve, or speed along your process, that makes you a cyborg. Approved.

If you are using AI to do tedious work you would already do anyway, that makes you a cyborg. Approved.

If you’re a writer who has never picked up a pen, and you are using AI to create imagery when you would otherwise have to hire an artist, that makes AI a scab undercutting a human doing the work. Not approved.

Are you an artist who can’t write your way out of a paper bag, and uses AI to write a story when you would have to hire a writer? That makes AI a scab taking money from a human. Not approved.

This is a tricky …