Y Combinator's Paul Graham warns that AI-generated emails from startup founders lose all impact once detected
Graham noted a telltale journalistic tone exposes these drafts
#78Paul Graham@PAULGI have never knowingly finished reading an email signed by a human but written by AI. It feels like being lied to, and who would stand for that?
Paul Graham@paulgA lot of the emails I get from founders are now written in a hard-hitting journalistic style. I know they're written by AI, because no founder ever wrote this way before. And once you realize something is written by AI, it's hard not to ignore it.
#153Gary Marcus@GARYMARCUS🔥
rat king 🐀@MikeIsaaci have found this as an interesting byproduct of the rise of obvious ai writing in pitches all the companies say it’s a big timesaver and i guess that’s true in a sense bc i send AI-written pitches directly into the trash
#496Kenneth Stanley@KENNETH0STANLEYThe problem is deeper than what @paulg is highlighting. It’s that we’re losing signals of authenticity. Language (especially written) has never been a perfect window into what is “truly inside” us, but with AI it is rapidly losing signal. A fix for this would change the world.
Paul Graham@paulgI have never knowingly finished reading an email signed by a human but written by AI. It feels like being lied to, and who would stand for that?
@MikeIsaac been getting AI pitches, cover letters, job applications etc. from younger ivy league students or recent grads from top schools disproportionately, have you seen this?
rat king 🐀@MikeIsaaci have found this as an interesting byproduct of the rise of obvious ai writing in pitches all the companies say it’s a big timesaver and i guess that’s true in a sense bc i send AI-written pitches directly into the trash
#1327Rachel Metz@RACHELMETZHuh
Paul Graham@paulgA lot of the emails I get from founders are now written in a hard-hitting journalistic style. I know they're written by AI, because no founder ever wrote this way before. And once you realize something is written by AI, it's hard not to ignore it.
#1562Nataniel Ruiz@NATANIELRUIZGit’s so true that it’s hard not to ignore something written purely by AI.
Paul Graham@paulgA lot of the emails I get from founders are now written in a hard-hitting journalistic style. I know they're written by AI, because no founder ever wrote this way before. And once you realize something is written by AI, it's hard not to ignore it.
This is a pretty deep question / assertion that is difficult (for me) to disagree with right now.
It reminds me of the first "letter quality" printer in Upson Hall and how using it for freshman work generated reactions from my professors. Many thought the "format" distracted from the content and was some sort of ruse on my part. Others thought the formatting caused them to look more carefully at the work as a result. Still others told me to use a typewriter like a normal student.
A wakeup call was a a chemistry lab I turned in with one note on the first page "Incredible presentation. Crap writeup. See me!"
Then Macintosh came out and everything changed. What will be Macintosh for AI generated/assisted writing?
Paul Graham@paulgA lot of the emails I get from founders are now written in a hard-hitting journalistic style. I know they're written by AI, because no founder ever wrote this way before. And once you realize something is written by AI, it's hard not to ignore it.