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Rachel Parker's avatar

A refreshingly honest and balanced approach to AI. I appreciate you taking the time to think through this and share so openly.

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Camilo Moreno-Salamanca's avatar

Thank you, Rachel! I'm glad you found this honest; it's what I was going for! I don't pretend to have all the answers, but I hope this helped people find their own!

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Brigitte Kratz's avatar

Such an honest, useful, and nuanced reflection on what we all wrestle with more or less, sooner or later.

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Camilo Moreno-Salamanca's avatar

Thank you, Brigitte! I appreciate the thoughtful comment :)

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Rick Lewis's avatar

I asked AI to suggest 2 things I could do to get you to say something nice about me in your next newsletter. No 1 "be a better writer" was obviously not in the cards, so I went with "provide a home cooked meal" and that obviously did the trick. Going to keep having you over until I win American Idol.

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Camilo Moreno-Salamanca's avatar

Ha! I'm pretty sure I've said nice things about you before, Rick. You make it easy for me. As always, I'm grateful for your wisdom and how it helped me get unstuck in this piece (even if you didn't know it!)

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Rick Lewis's avatar

Always enjoy our conversations my friend.

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Matt Cyr's avatar

Man, I love this. Well done! I just did a post about transparency in AI usage. Would’ve linked this as an example in it. This is EXACTLY the kind of stuff I hope more people do for themselves re: how they will use AI. When people get truly honest they’re operating from a good place for the reader/audience/client and that comes through in the work.

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Camilo Moreno-Salamanca's avatar

Thanks for the comment, Matt! I'm going to take some time to read your piece carefully, but at first skim it does seem like they intersect really well!

I agree with your main insight here, at the end of the day it's about being honest and explaining the why behind our choices, even if we don't agree with its logic.

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Rick Lewis's avatar

I had the same thought when I read Camilo's piece, that it demonstrated just what you were suggesting authors ought to do re disclosure of use.

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Saalik's avatar

Fellow Enneagram 2 reporting for duty! Loved this read, and resonate with a bunch of this. Thank you for bringing nuance to this topic which is often spoken of in all-or-nothing polarities.

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Camilo Moreno-Salamanca's avatar

Thanks for reading, Saalik!

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Hannah Weaver's avatar

I respect the hell out of you as a writer, Cam, and I have been sitting with this one for awhile.

I'm also a writer. My writing, that I put out there for awhile, has been scraped for use with AI. More than once. Not just in the abstract. My partner is a visual artist who has to resort to using Glaze and Nightshade to ensure his art is no longer being scraped. I write because I want to share my ideas with the world. I research, and sometimes what I research doesn't turn out accurately. When I find out, I correct what I've written. I don't write so that my words and phrasing and ideas and story beats are thrown into some blender without my consent to train AI.

I'm not going to lay out Hannah's Ninety-Five Theses here, but AI is a product that exists on the backs of other creatives. I also don't see much of a distinction between you using AI to edit/rephrase and using AI to write. Editing *is* writing. Wordhippo would have given you a great alternative for hypocrisy without using AI, and it's free. I'd very much like to have a further conversation with you about this if you'd like.

It's because I respect your writing and your thoroughness and your willingness to lay it out for everyone to see that it bothers me.

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Camilo Moreno-Salamanca's avatar

Thank you, Hannah. I do value your opinion on this, especially since I know we have very different beliefs and approaches. I'm sure this will be a topic of conversation between us.

Your concerns resonate with me (because as you mention, these are not abstract things). I'm also of the opinion that Pandora's box has been opened, and there is no going back.

But anyways, this is a broader conversation I'm happy to have with you.

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Leo Ariel's avatar

Love it, Camilo! How was meeting our Substack star IRL? Did anything about him surprise you?

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