Last week I was discussing how to handle AI-generated posts on the PHP subreddit. Someone brought up the idea of explicitly tagging those posts as "AI-generated" (on Reddit that's called a "flair"). Next I knew, someone asked me this:

Will you use the flair on your tempest blog posts? Your latest blog post use a lot of sub-sentences and em-dash, a clear sign of AI usage. Also it has no spelling errors, which is typical for AI assisted writing.

I honestly had to process this question for a couple of days. To be clear: I don't use AI to write any of my content. I do use a basic spellchecker, and I've picked up the use of em-dashes — those are these kinds of dashes to create sub-sentences — I've started using them years ago, way before they became an "AI thing".

All that being said, I really can't blame this user for asking. I myself have noticed I've become much more skeptical of anything I see, read, or hear online. The rise of AI has driven me to "skepticism-by-default" mode. Whether that's an AI-generated Google answer, AI-generated code, images, music, videos, or blog posts — I've come to grow suspicious of most online content.

I have no doubt that AI is here to stay, and I'm positive that it can have a very productive impact when used by skilled people in the right way. But it's leading inevitably to so much distrust in the world around me, and that saddens me deeply.