Is That Writer Using AI -- or Are You Mediocre and Jealous? Writers Who Hate AI Usually Just Hate Competition
Is That Writer Using AI or Are You Mediocre and Jealous?
Writers say they hate AI because it’s low quality, but what they actually hate is competition.
I am old hat at SEO writing. It is odd to me for a platform to frown upon writing processes that actually bring in Google search traffic. These days, people are always asking, “Was this written to make money?” The answer is: of course. It’s a monetized site. That’s why we’re publishing here. It’s always been about money, but we are now expected to pretend that it’s not, even though that actually tanks traffic. If you ask me, the only question anybody should be asking is, “Was this written well?”
I’m Basically a Glitchy Android in a Human Body
It is a strange time to be a girl with an English degree who scored in the 99th percentile for reading and writing on the SAT, gave a speech at her college graduation, and types 120wpm with 98% accuracy — much less one who loves emojis, makes lists about literally everything, and has an actual OCD diagnosis (maximum perfectionism). My whole personality — and thus my writing style — is a recipe for getting accused of AI generation, even if it only contributed a headline or a pixel art image to go with the article.
It’s no different than back in 1997 when a teacher accused me of plagiarizing my poems from the internet because she didn’t believe a 12 year-old could have written them. I got the satisfaction of telling her that the poems were indeed online — on the webpage I had coded by hand via Notepad in plain HTML.
Was I cheating, or did a mediocre, insecure person feel threatened by my superior skill?
I think more writers, especially the ones who aren’t making a full-time living from their craft, should ask that question before taking up their pitchforks and embarking on an AI witchhunt.
Just because someone’s content is better than yours doesn’t mean it’s AI. Just because someone writes faster or more than you doesn’t mean they’re using AI. And I’m gonna hold your hand when I say this: just because someone used AI doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to profit, so long as they act ethically and produce quality results.
AI detectors are a joke.
They will flag a post because the writer has good grammar — or likes emojis and lists. Then they will give a clean pass to a fully auto-generated essay because the user knew what prompts would make the AI sound most human. People will accuse writers of using ChatGPT over a long em dash, even though plenty of word processors automatically convert double dashes to the long one.
It’s not about who wrote it. It’s about whether the tone and cadence match the checker’s idea of what “human” sounds like. Both humans and machines get it wrong all the time. Any neurodivergent person can give you at least one reason why.
And let’s be real: a lot of human-written content is garbage.
Low-quality manmade content flooded Amazon years before the birth of AI. There are AI-generated pieces that read beautifully, and there are human-written stories that belong in the Recycle Bin. On one end of the crap spectrum, you’ve got soulless AI slop, and on the other end, you’ve got typo-riddled, rambling, unreadable nonsense written by a living, breathing human. The origin doesn’t matter. The quality does.
Platforms such as Medium and Vocal Media profit off of viral AI-assisted content while scolding creators for using AI tools, even though they benefit from any engaging content, regardless of origin. It doesn’t matter if it was typed by a person, polished by a bot, or summoned from a magic lamp. If it gets clicks, it gets monetized. That’s not a sin, just strategy.
What people really seem to resent is how accessible it’s become to produce readable work quickly.
Let’s be honest: the barrier to entry was never “soul” or “talent.” It was time, resources, and tech fluency. AI didn’t create the formula. It just handed it to more people. And for platforms built on engagement metrics, pretending that quality control suddenly matters is the fakest part of all.
Most viral peices are formulaic by design anyway, AI or not. A five-paragraph opinion piece with a punchy headline and some relatable humor? That’s not “soulless.” That’s “standard.” It’s disingenuous to pretend AI is ruining writing when the internet was already drowning in cookie-cutter content long before these tools existed.
Innovation isn’t cheating. It’s survival.
If someone’s only strategy to stay relevant is to shame people for adapting faster, they weren’t built to last in this industry anyway. AI users are not responsible for preserving anyone’s place in a competitive market. If you aren’t profiting from your craft, it’s your job to polish your technique and learn the skills needed to market yourself effectively. I chose to do this via an English degree and a graduate program in Digital Marketing.
AI users don’t owe anyone a commission, anymore than I owe it to you not to take commissions away from you. I don’t even know you. It’s your job to find a path of your own to improvement and growth. The classy move is to do it without tearing anyone else down.
Take responsibility for yourself.
I don’t even have time to fret over what tools other writers are using. I’m too busy writing. Shouldn’t you be, too?
Bless your heart.
From: Medium
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