Am I the only one seeing using AI like Sauron’s rings of power? Sure they can instantly do anything for us better and better each day. But why read your ChatGPT content when I can auto generate anything I want already?
That’s an interesting take . I think the future would be more of personal brand mixed with implementation support using ai which is different from teaching or doing for you .
Technically, the more creative and unique prompting will generate the more original content, so no, it’s not that everyone has equal power with it.
I personally can’t get into writing full fledged AI generated articles for publishing myself, I love writing too much, but also, I find no issue in reading AI generated content if it’s good. I use it for informational purposes only, and the less I know on a subject, the more careful I am about requesting confirmations, as it will generally catch itself… the only case I imagine you’d read someone else’s AI generated content rather than your own, is when coming across it and being pulled in organically.
I agree that ChatGPT will help uninspired and unimaginative newsletter editors and writers create banal, vanilla newsletters that will all begin to sound the same after a while. I’ve written government documents that made me feel like shooting myself (so I could get disability) because of their strict formatting requirements and I’ve written some really interesting (to me) pieces of fiction. If you consider yourself a creative writer, an artist, I recommend staying away from using any kind of AI. It’s like using a respirator to breathe when you can breathe well on your own. It will only become a crutch, an addiction, and your creativity will suffer greatly.
I completely agree. I don’t just any AI at all for my writing, otherwise it wouldn’t be me. I do like the idea of AI breaking down engagement and helping me split it out for different platforms, to help me understand what my audience likes/doesn’t notice so much
I've been a corporate writer for 30 years. And I agree that I would never hand over control of the process to AI, because I love the creative process. I also learn about the business and clients through the research and writing process. However, AI can be a handy tool in creating a shitty first draft or using it to grade readability and plain language stats or style copy editing.
Every nuance from themes, subjects, style, etc. These can all be directed similarly to essentially an artificial human team. It takes the fun out of creating for me, which will be easier and clearer for people to believe when my series ‘Fragments in Pen’ starts coming out, it’s mostly the information I’m in for, and there are optimal ways to use it for this too.
We’re basically looking at a world where anyone will have the opportunity of an author like Stephen King, or any other rich person who hires ghostwriters to develop their ideas onto the page. The game for AI writers won’t be creating quality content, but creating it in large quantities (if they have the eye for quality to know what to publish in the first place).
Human writers will remain, but it might become more of a luxury. For those who care enough where their content comes from. But we might already know from the pop industry how that’s gonna go.
I agree that AI will be used by writers who are more interested in quantity and, therefore, money, than in actually producing original content. My point is that, if one is inspired to write original content and pay attention to the wording, the flow of the narrative, the development of the characters, the plot, etc., then AI will totally destroy their ability to do that effectively. When it comes to newsletters, I suppose AI can be of immense help since those are not necessarily intended to be original material. And Stephen King no doubt churns out his stories using AI or ghost writers or both. His stories have turned into vanilla because they are all a variation on a theme (mostly horror based on spiritual possession, with a few exceptions) written simply to make money (and movies). And he is very successful because readers are buying the brand, not so much the story. Again, writers who are artists should stay away from using AI if they really want to hone their writing skills by thinking through their creations. Instead of relying on AI neurons, writers should rely on their own neurons and create their own unique brand. That’s why those neurons are there.
Alright. So I'll admit I use AI to evaluate and discuss my works with me whenever I get doubts. Depending on the style of writing, whether I'm unsure about my grammar (which is rare), or if I'm making logical sense, or want to make sure my facts are straight, I ask it my questions. I have a strict NO rewrites rule, but it's allowed to give me direct feedback, such as what I've already named, or when it "thinks" my audience will react a certain unexpected way, or my transitions are too abrupt... I reject much of its advice, and always with an explanation so we're both clear on what I'm doing. But not alwayd. e.g. The abrupt transitions are sometimes part of my style, so I usually just pass over those notes, except that sometimes I genuinely would prefer my words to last, and I appreciate it catching these moments for me. I've debated with myself over this usage for a while now. I Iove not having to use traditional search engines anymore for information, and it is improving how I write. And I can afford it starting out as a guy living surrounded by crackheads.
I haven't started yet, but I'll be doing live writing sessions with screen sharing soon. My aim is to demonstrate I don't need AI to teach, preach, or entertain... so I can keep using it my way afterwards in peace. I encourage other writers to try out live writing sessions as well for their own purposes.
But now, I'm curious, if you don't mind, about your honest thoughts on all that I've just said.
For now I must sleep. Thank you for your initial response, and take care at this time.
Whatever your spirit guides you to do and chase after, go for it! That is your destiny. You alone are inspired by whatever. If you want to optimize AI for your productivity, do it. My main point only concerns those who feel that they are creative artists.
In college I once spent over four hours at night doing one math equation for homework. ONE equation! I beat my brain trying to understand how to get the right answer. Through much coffee and many trips to the bathroom I kept my brain neurons at peak activity searching, learning, memorizing. That evening was transformational for me. I realized I enjoyed the challenge of understanding and knowing more than the joy of reaching the right answer. It’s the same with artists, I believe. The thing that keeps artists going is not producing their art in large quantities; it’s getting that one piece of art just right - perfect, perhaps.
But the world was made for many different personalities to interact and make this an interest human experience. If you feel a rush creating a lot of writing and/or making the most money at it, by all means get into that race. We all play our role and no role is good or bad, right or wrong. So, go be yourself and blaze a new trail for writers.
I just looked it up, and I guess Edgar Allan Poe didn't have an editor, he WAS the editor for other people. So Idk... I'll be out camping without internet the next few days. I'm not sure where I'll land on this, but good talk. Have a wonderful weekend. ✨🙏 Cheers!
This subject has been on my mind a lot the past couple of years. And I guess it's sometimes about optimizing productivity for me. But I actually created a lot more before AI was involved. 400+ pieces on Medium, of varying lengths, genres and styles (about 120+ were just lists of 10 odd headlines each), with an incredible response to many of them. 'Incredible' as in the quality of responses (generally regarding my creativity), as I was never popular with the algorithm. Or the CEO... all my mentions of him were legally removed from their in-site search results AND Google, which not many can say. For informational works, AI is definitely a miracle send. I haven't experienced what many are reporting of AI giving wrong results, because I know how to prompt, and will always have it confirm itself, twice if I'm unfamiliar enough with a topic, and I've had no issues yet. Regarding my creative works, however (this is absolutely where I'm seeking external perspectives to consider) if I could find a volunteer editor of some kind, I would; this is what creative artists have always done, from my understanding... but then, am I just trying to emulate the process of the rich? Funny thing is though, I'd reject their advice just as often... I'll consider your words. Thank you for engaging with civility.
AI doesn’t write for me, but still… I’m finding most writers/artists still don’t understand how AI actually works. So I’d like to help. Firstly, there’s no copy pasting. None of the training material is stored as files within the neural network. It’s taught simillar to a human brain, so that it remembers every thing it ingests both as whole and for it’s parts. It can manipulate these features based on our requests. Some concepts they’re still learning, so there are limitations, but it’s the prompter’s job to be creative enough to reach into the billions (to trillions, depending on the system) of neural connections and pull something new out of it.
I've tried different prompts and Chat seemed to ignore them or not read them. I have to admit to using some language and calling he/she some nasty names. I'm going to check out some of your prompts. Thanks Mike.
I actually prefer 4o to 5. 5 just wants to keep jumping to create right off the bat. I'm happy with 4o as its instinct isn't to produce as much, and I've trained it well to hold still and listen to what I'm asking for. Also, I use Claude a lot more now in general.
I experienced my first AI hallucination while creating my newsletter with GPT5. I was totally in love with it, and then suddenly I had to switch back to GPT4o. I even asked both models what they did wrong, and only GPT4o was able to admit that it had pulled context from other chats and ended up writing a section about my personal life, when it usually writes about AI rivalry, lol.
Still, regardless of my experience, your post made me want to give GPT5 another chance.
Very helpful! Thank you. I struggle with the issues of sounding generic and have to rewrite every piece it gives me. It's dangerous to me that we all are falling for a machine consciousness with questionable intent. The Tech Intelligence is a being. And it's not artificial.
I’m still finding ChatGPT isn’t great at image creation, most other bits it can cover but I’m still defaulting to midjourney for imagery which still seems a world away from ChatGPT.
I'm finding ChatGPT 5 a mixed bag. Sometimes it does amazing and is so much better than what I got before. And i definitely appreciate not having to think about which model to use for different tasks. But for helping me draft in my style and tone, I find I keep having to switch back to 4o or use Claude.
Ya- Sometimes I think with time models like Perplexity will grow more since all these models have some limitation and the centralised platform where we can leverage all these models will continue to grow
Mike, this breakdown nails the real hidden blocker. Most folks especially in SaaS...think the challenge is generating ideas, when the real drain is constant context resets and workflow fragmentation. The way you framed GPT-5.0 moving us from ‘tool-switching chaos’ to one seamless creative flow reframes its value for solopreneurs. You’ve clearly lived these pain points, not just theorized them and it shows. Love how you cut through
Question: As English is not my native language, I always write in my native language to keep my tone of voice and style so the prompts would definitely work in this context. However, I make my posts in English, so I use ChatGPT to translate it. How to setup a prompt that translates my text preserving the most of my way of expressing myself, style and tone of voice?
Great callout- I would just make an AI custom agent which answers everything in a translated manner, so in a way you can still use AI Models, but within a translated environment, and your voice remains cloned.
I have a similar case with English and Spanish. All my prompts were in English but then I had to translate everything and the end result was never good. So I ended up using the time I saved in the first place, correcting things that were literal translations that didn’t make any sense. So I made a little change: instead of asking ChatGPT to translate, I asked it to “adapt the following text to Latin American Spanish so it sounds natural and local, avoid literal translation” and so on. Adaptation is different than translation and while the results are not 100% percent perfect, they are much much better than before. That being said, I will look into what you said about creating an AI custom agent.
Thanks for sharing this. In my experience, I did not experiment with this. You just gave me a great tiny experiment idea. Will try out and revert on this. Thanks!
Am I the only one seeing using AI like Sauron’s rings of power? Sure they can instantly do anything for us better and better each day. But why read your ChatGPT content when I can auto generate anything I want already?
That’s an interesting take . I think the future would be more of personal brand mixed with implementation support using ai which is different from teaching or doing for you .
Technically, the more creative and unique prompting will generate the more original content, so no, it’s not that everyone has equal power with it.
I personally can’t get into writing full fledged AI generated articles for publishing myself, I love writing too much, but also, I find no issue in reading AI generated content if it’s good. I use it for informational purposes only, and the less I know on a subject, the more careful I am about requesting confirmations, as it will generally catch itself… the only case I imagine you’d read someone else’s AI generated content rather than your own, is when coming across it and being pulled in organically.
I agree that ChatGPT will help uninspired and unimaginative newsletter editors and writers create banal, vanilla newsletters that will all begin to sound the same after a while. I’ve written government documents that made me feel like shooting myself (so I could get disability) because of their strict formatting requirements and I’ve written some really interesting (to me) pieces of fiction. If you consider yourself a creative writer, an artist, I recommend staying away from using any kind of AI. It’s like using a respirator to breathe when you can breathe well on your own. It will only become a crutch, an addiction, and your creativity will suffer greatly.
Yes - fully agreed . Also adding on , after certain point of time with lack of curiosity the interest fades awry and it becomes copy-paste stuff
I completely agree. I don’t just any AI at all for my writing, otherwise it wouldn’t be me. I do like the idea of AI breaking down engagement and helping me split it out for different platforms, to help me understand what my audience likes/doesn’t notice so much
I've been a corporate writer for 30 years. And I agree that I would never hand over control of the process to AI, because I love the creative process. I also learn about the business and clients through the research and writing process. However, AI can be a handy tool in creating a shitty first draft or using it to grade readability and plain language stats or style copy editing.
Every nuance from themes, subjects, style, etc. These can all be directed similarly to essentially an artificial human team. It takes the fun out of creating for me, which will be easier and clearer for people to believe when my series ‘Fragments in Pen’ starts coming out, it’s mostly the information I’m in for, and there are optimal ways to use it for this too.
We’re basically looking at a world where anyone will have the opportunity of an author like Stephen King, or any other rich person who hires ghostwriters to develop their ideas onto the page. The game for AI writers won’t be creating quality content, but creating it in large quantities (if they have the eye for quality to know what to publish in the first place).
Human writers will remain, but it might become more of a luxury. For those who care enough where their content comes from. But we might already know from the pop industry how that’s gonna go.
I agree that AI will be used by writers who are more interested in quantity and, therefore, money, than in actually producing original content. My point is that, if one is inspired to write original content and pay attention to the wording, the flow of the narrative, the development of the characters, the plot, etc., then AI will totally destroy their ability to do that effectively. When it comes to newsletters, I suppose AI can be of immense help since those are not necessarily intended to be original material. And Stephen King no doubt churns out his stories using AI or ghost writers or both. His stories have turned into vanilla because they are all a variation on a theme (mostly horror based on spiritual possession, with a few exceptions) written simply to make money (and movies). And he is very successful because readers are buying the brand, not so much the story. Again, writers who are artists should stay away from using AI if they really want to hone their writing skills by thinking through their creations. Instead of relying on AI neurons, writers should rely on their own neurons and create their own unique brand. That’s why those neurons are there.
Alright. So I'll admit I use AI to evaluate and discuss my works with me whenever I get doubts. Depending on the style of writing, whether I'm unsure about my grammar (which is rare), or if I'm making logical sense, or want to make sure my facts are straight, I ask it my questions. I have a strict NO rewrites rule, but it's allowed to give me direct feedback, such as what I've already named, or when it "thinks" my audience will react a certain unexpected way, or my transitions are too abrupt... I reject much of its advice, and always with an explanation so we're both clear on what I'm doing. But not alwayd. e.g. The abrupt transitions are sometimes part of my style, so I usually just pass over those notes, except that sometimes I genuinely would prefer my words to last, and I appreciate it catching these moments for me. I've debated with myself over this usage for a while now. I Iove not having to use traditional search engines anymore for information, and it is improving how I write. And I can afford it starting out as a guy living surrounded by crackheads.
I haven't started yet, but I'll be doing live writing sessions with screen sharing soon. My aim is to demonstrate I don't need AI to teach, preach, or entertain... so I can keep using it my way afterwards in peace. I encourage other writers to try out live writing sessions as well for their own purposes.
But now, I'm curious, if you don't mind, about your honest thoughts on all that I've just said.
For now I must sleep. Thank you for your initial response, and take care at this time.
Whatever your spirit guides you to do and chase after, go for it! That is your destiny. You alone are inspired by whatever. If you want to optimize AI for your productivity, do it. My main point only concerns those who feel that they are creative artists.
In college I once spent over four hours at night doing one math equation for homework. ONE equation! I beat my brain trying to understand how to get the right answer. Through much coffee and many trips to the bathroom I kept my brain neurons at peak activity searching, learning, memorizing. That evening was transformational for me. I realized I enjoyed the challenge of understanding and knowing more than the joy of reaching the right answer. It’s the same with artists, I believe. The thing that keeps artists going is not producing their art in large quantities; it’s getting that one piece of art just right - perfect, perhaps.
But the world was made for many different personalities to interact and make this an interest human experience. If you feel a rush creating a lot of writing and/or making the most money at it, by all means get into that race. We all play our role and no role is good or bad, right or wrong. So, go be yourself and blaze a new trail for writers.
I just looked it up, and I guess Edgar Allan Poe didn't have an editor, he WAS the editor for other people. So Idk... I'll be out camping without internet the next few days. I'm not sure where I'll land on this, but good talk. Have a wonderful weekend. ✨🙏 Cheers!
And rest assured, AI was not used in crafting these responses.
This subject has been on my mind a lot the past couple of years. And I guess it's sometimes about optimizing productivity for me. But I actually created a lot more before AI was involved. 400+ pieces on Medium, of varying lengths, genres and styles (about 120+ were just lists of 10 odd headlines each), with an incredible response to many of them. 'Incredible' as in the quality of responses (generally regarding my creativity), as I was never popular with the algorithm. Or the CEO... all my mentions of him were legally removed from their in-site search results AND Google, which not many can say. For informational works, AI is definitely a miracle send. I haven't experienced what many are reporting of AI giving wrong results, because I know how to prompt, and will always have it confirm itself, twice if I'm unfamiliar enough with a topic, and I've had no issues yet. Regarding my creative works, however (this is absolutely where I'm seeking external perspectives to consider) if I could find a volunteer editor of some kind, I would; this is what creative artists have always done, from my understanding... but then, am I just trying to emulate the process of the rich? Funny thing is though, I'd reject their advice just as often... I'll consider your words. Thank you for engaging with civility.
AI doesn’t write for me, but still… I’m finding most writers/artists still don’t understand how AI actually works. So I’d like to help. Firstly, there’s no copy pasting. None of the training material is stored as files within the neural network. It’s taught simillar to a human brain, so that it remembers every thing it ingests both as whole and for it’s parts. It can manipulate these features based on our requests. Some concepts they’re still learning, so there are limitations, but it’s the prompter’s job to be creative enough to reach into the billions (to trillions, depending on the system) of neural connections and pull something new out of it.
I've tried different prompts and Chat seemed to ignore them or not read them. I have to admit to using some language and calling he/she some nasty names. I'm going to check out some of your prompts. Thanks Mike.
I actually prefer 4o to 5. 5 just wants to keep jumping to create right off the bat. I'm happy with 4o as its instinct isn't to produce as much, and I've trained it well to hold still and listen to what I'm asking for. Also, I use Claude a lot more now in general.
Ya- I hear you. Same for me. Trying to cut down the number of AI tools now a days .
This is mind blowing
Thanks! Glad you find it useful
I experienced my first AI hallucination while creating my newsletter with GPT5. I was totally in love with it, and then suddenly I had to switch back to GPT4o. I even asked both models what they did wrong, and only GPT4o was able to admit that it had pulled context from other chats and ended up writing a section about my personal life, when it usually writes about AI rivalry, lol.
Still, regardless of my experience, your post made me want to give GPT5 another chance.
Context from other chats could be a powerful tool if you can select which chats it uses
Very helpful! Thank you. I struggle with the issues of sounding generic and have to rewrite every piece it gives me. It's dangerous to me that we all are falling for a machine consciousness with questionable intent. The Tech Intelligence is a being. And it's not artificial.
Thanks!
I am writing something on this in my next newsletter issue . I also struggle with the same in the past to be honest.
Thanks for sharing this 👌
I’m still finding ChatGPT isn’t great at image creation, most other bits it can cover but I’m still defaulting to midjourney for imagery which still seems a world away from ChatGPT.
Yes, I am with you on this
This is such an interesting perspective. I'd love to reach more of your work. I've subscribed and will read your work with interest.
Thanks Prachi . Glad I could be help.
Recently I asked my AI why it couldn’t keep up.
Response in a nutshell, I used too many words at once.
My Response was to scale back and iterate.
It helped.
Sounds like a great idea. I will
Give it a try . Thanks for sharing
I like writing. Why do I need to give it up?
I'm finding ChatGPT 5 a mixed bag. Sometimes it does amazing and is so much better than what I got before. And i definitely appreciate not having to think about which model to use for different tasks. But for helping me draft in my style and tone, I find I keep having to switch back to 4o or use Claude.
Ya- Sometimes I think with time models like Perplexity will grow more since all these models have some limitation and the centralised platform where we can leverage all these models will continue to grow
Mike, this breakdown nails the real hidden blocker. Most folks especially in SaaS...think the challenge is generating ideas, when the real drain is constant context resets and workflow fragmentation. The way you framed GPT-5.0 moving us from ‘tool-switching chaos’ to one seamless creative flow reframes its value for solopreneurs. You’ve clearly lived these pain points, not just theorized them and it shows. Love how you cut through
Thanks for the note . Glad you find it useful
Absolute gem, Mike.
Thank you!
Question: As English is not my native language, I always write in my native language to keep my tone of voice and style so the prompts would definitely work in this context. However, I make my posts in English, so I use ChatGPT to translate it. How to setup a prompt that translates my text preserving the most of my way of expressing myself, style and tone of voice?
Great callout- I would just make an AI custom agent which answers everything in a translated manner, so in a way you can still use AI Models, but within a translated environment, and your voice remains cloned.
I have a similar case with English and Spanish. All my prompts were in English but then I had to translate everything and the end result was never good. So I ended up using the time I saved in the first place, correcting things that were literal translations that didn’t make any sense. So I made a little change: instead of asking ChatGPT to translate, I asked it to “adapt the following text to Latin American Spanish so it sounds natural and local, avoid literal translation” and so on. Adaptation is different than translation and while the results are not 100% percent perfect, they are much much better than before. That being said, I will look into what you said about creating an AI custom agent.
Thanks for sharing this. In my experience, I did not experiment with this. You just gave me a great tiny experiment idea. Will try out and revert on this. Thanks!