I think this time it is really goodbye.
Goodbye, Medium
Goodbyes are hard, especially when you are the only side that even cares. Medium, unfortunately, has chosen its direction and it won’t include human writers. At least not those like myself.
An interesting thing about the Luddites. They weren’t necessarily against the new technology of the weaving mills. They were concerned about the loss of quality, artisan skills, and uniqueness that was in human woven products. They were concerned about humanity and humans, and human safety, being trampled over so a few could get rich. Sound familiar?
So I hope you understand, I am not anti-tech, but I am against using tech to usurp or replace our humanity. LLMs, AI, synthetic problem solvers, whatever you want to call them, are not capable of human creativity or understanding the nuance of being human, no more than you or I can understand the nuances of being a robin, a maple tree, or an axolatl. AI can run data sets for cancer research, and do it well, but it cannot write a heartbreakingly beautiful poem about living, and dying, with terminal cancer.
The technology was implemented too quickly in the name of profit, without considering the humanity in the equation. The Luddites burned and destroyed mills in an effort to be heard and to prevent a new elite class from forming. They failed their battle, but the war is still being fought today.
And Medium chose its side when it released TK. (I can’t even type the letters without it appearing in my sidebar as I write. You know what? Fuck you, Medium, this is becoming downright abusive.) The site is devolving into AI slop. Even worse, it is riding on the backs of the original artists and writers in an attempt to convince the public that it is still human made and human centered writing.
I want to talk about coyotes.
Once upon a time, not too long ago, we hunted coyotes ruthlessly. Their range shrunk and shrunk, much like the range of the wolf. Then something happened.
Coyotes today have increased their range by over 40 percent of their historical average. How? Because they used their special skillset, the skillset that makes them coyotes, to thrive. They can lean into being hunters, scavengers, or thieves, depending on what survival requires. They can move into predator vacuums, hunting and surviving off of all sorts of different prey.
Humans embracing their humanity is similar to coyotes embracing their coyotity, one could say. If we begin to outsource our humanity to the machines, then it is the machines who will take over our niche and regulate us to either the sidelines or extinction.
Medium chose to deny our humanity while still spitting their bullshit “about human stories for humans.”
Oh, you can argue that TK doesn’t do all the writing, but it does the heavy lifting, the truly human part of writing. And honestly, with a click of the button a human producer (I WILL NOT call them a writer) can opt to simply publish TK’s stolen words (because LLMs, in general, are built off stolen words) instead of their own. Can’t think of a word? Let TK handle it. Stuck on an idea and not sure how to write from point A to B? TK can do it! Need to research something (and don’t care too much if you get facts or AI slop), simply ask TK! The actual human part of writing, the part that required thinking and reaching into our souls to produce, is exactly what is being outsourced to TK. Worse, it’s being done in an insidious way in an attempt to hide it from the human readers.
We are a combination of the people we hang around the most and the media we imbibe. The only reason to read what a machine writes is if you want to become a machine. I don’t.
It makes me sick that my Friend of Medium subscription helped pay for this. But it won’t continue. I’ve been a paying member since 2022. I began falling out of love last year. I’ve barely touched the site, except to support a few of my favorite writers, in months. Fortunately, my favorite writers have presences off of Medium.
I was a friend of Medium, but Medium was using me all along.
Goodbye.
I have decided to take this opportunity to expand my writing. I realize now that Medium was limiting me to the essay form, and I have so very much more to say and even more amazing ways to say it. You can find my writing now on my writing blog (a work in progress), which will include essays, reviews, short stories, and other words of mischief, and perhaps even wisdom, at JennyWrenStudio.com.
