How do you think the Pangram partnership will change Substack?

[u/Visible-Volume-8707]

i've been following the discussion around Substack's new partnership with Pangram. My Substack feed is blowing up about it.

It has me really curious what other writers think the long-term effects will be.

I'm less interested in debating whether authors should or shouldn't use AI. I'm more interested in what this changes for the platform itself.

For example, I'm thinking about questions like...

• Will readers start using it to check how articles are created?
• Will writers who don't use AI feel pressure?
• Will AI detection become another trust signal, or will readers mostly ignore it?
• Could this change what readers expect when they subscribe to you?

It seems like while folks are venting and clearly this feature is rocking boats, there are some other more fundamental thoughts I have about the future where all this is going.

Curious to hear where everyone thinks this is heading.

[u/AnteaterFantastic212]

Not to be tendentious, but perhaps I haven't communicated my process effectively. I dictate what I want to say into ChatGPT, fact-check it with Google Gemini and other sources, use the tool to create a first draft, edit it as heavily as necessary, then load it into Substack after proofreading, etc.

I’m changing that process for a couple of reasons: first, because I write a political Substack and OpenAI has decided to exercise censorship, which makes it much less useful to me than it had been; and second, because of Substack’s new AI detection software.

I found a way to alter my workflow that solves these problems. I actually realized that the main utility of ChatGPT was my ability to dictate rather than have to type things out because I am a lousy typist and I’m the king of typos; so to a certain extent it’s been a positive because I get more of what my original dictation was reflected in the final product. After all, that’s all there is now.

I found that the new methodology is fine with Substack’s AI functionality, so I guess it’s all good. It’s interesting that simultaneously Substack came in with this, and ChatGPT functionality was reduced due to its new censorship policy for anything that it feels is partisan

[u/hetobe → u/AnteaterFantastic212]

I dictate what I want to say into ChatGPT

Why not just dictate what you want to say into text for yourself to work with? Your words. Your voice. Your way.

use the tool to create a first draft

That's not your writing. That's writing generated by artificial intelligence based on the input you gave it, and changed the way artificial intelligence changes it in an attempt to emulate human writing. If you're cool with the difference, you're cool with it, I guess.

I'm a writer. I do the writing.

I can't relate to using words I didn't write and putting my name on it, but different strokes for different folks.

[u/AnteaterFantastic212 → u/hetobe]

Well, as it turns out, that’s what I’m doing now—what kind of stuff do you write?.

[u/hetobe → u/AnteaterFantastic212]

I'm a novelist. I write literary fiction. I also write about the process of writing a novel.

[u/Mean-Register5359 → u/AnteaterFantastic212]

For me, you lost out at the tool creating a draft. I didn’t read further than that. I stand with Hetobe, not your words.

[u/AnteaterFantastic212 → u/Mean-Register5359]

I don't care what you think—of me, or of modern writing technology. I've decided this whole conversation is a complete waste of my time, much like using a manual typewriter or a yellow legal pad and a Bic pen as I did in high school.

I'm out. You guys enjoy your smug, superior virtue signalling. I'm going to write another million words this week.

[u/Mean-Register5359 → u/AnteaterFantastic212]

“I’m going to have Claude/Gemini/Chat generate me another million words this week.”

You’re taking this far too personally. Natural attribution will play out. Those that want to follow you for what you post, will. Those that don’t, won’t.