Could a robot replace me?
Maybe.
I was talking with a writer girlfriend of mine last week about the march toward a world dominated by Artificial Intelligence-written copy. “Well, I’m almost entirely replaceable now!” she half-joked and half-lamented. “The AI copy keeps getting better.”
It made me wonder about this Substack. “My experiences as an urban farmer,” seem to be a niche that no AI could replicate, right?
So far, June is the only of the three goats who were due last week to kid. It was easy and anticlimactic. Now, I am stuck here, hesitant to be gone for too long in case something goes wrong.
While waiting for Bella and Alta to follow suit and give us some babies, I decided I would test out an AI writer. I pretended like Bella HAD kidded and wanted to see what a birth announcement generated by Artificial Intelligence would sound like.
By the way, if you needed any more robot and goat weirdness, apparently Kawasaki has created the prototype for a ridable goat robot named Bex. So robots might replace both me and the goats someday. I feel like we’ll be riding these into battle before we know it.
An urban farming AI blog post
My inputs -
Type of writing: Blog Post
Tell the AI what to write about and how: Write about the birth of baby goats on an urban farm. The dam is a 6-year-old Miniature Lamancha named Bella. The urban farm is located north of Denver, Colorado. The farm also houses chickens, guineas, and ducks. The baby goats were overdue, but eventually, they made their appearance. Write it in the form of a narrative that's casual but engaging.
The output -
What the AI wrote:
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for at our urban farm north of Denver - the arrival of new baby goats! After an anxious wait that lasted just over a month, Bella the miniature Lamancha and proud mother finally gave birth to twin baby goats.
The happy occasion took place yesterday morning with much excitement amongst the other residents of the farm - our chickens, guineas, and ducks! At around 9am, we heard Bella making her labor noises, and everyone rushed out to the barn. Within minutes, the first baby goat was born, and shortly afterwards the second baby followed.
It was so amazing to witness the beauty of new life. Despite their petite size, the little ones quickly got up and were full of energy and ready to explore the world around them.
Bella was the perfect mama and was very protective of her two little babies, always staying by their side. We couldn’t help but ooh and ahh over how adorable and fluffy they are.
As the farm grows, we are so grateful for all the love that Bella has brought us, and for our wonderful community that we have here on the farm. We can’t wait to watch these two little ones grow up!
It’s uncanny to read, but there’s also something about it that feels not quite right. It feels like someone took the human experience and tried to run it through the copy machine one too many times.
What do you think?
That is the uncanny valley of writing - I thought I was hearing the voice of a combination Stepford wife/QVC host.
That's spooky and weird, but I agree with Jennifer about the Stepford vibe. Mostly, it's missing your snarky one-liners and honest love of your farm creatures. I'm betting AI doesn't know the word "skritches"...