What is happening to writing? - by Benjamin Breen
resobscura.substack.com · 3,185 words · saved by 1 readers
"Cognitive debt," Claude Code, and the negative space around AI
Last week, an essay laying out a case for how AI will change knowledge work went enormously viral on X, where it currently sits at 84 million views: I agree with much of it, though parts were overstated and other parts were clearly submarine marketing. But what was most striking to me wasn’t the content, but the obvious fact that large swathes of it were written by AI. I suspect that the “AI slop” quality was actually part of why it did so well. In 2026, we must face the fact that slop is well-liked. Perfectly formatted writing, with statistics ready at hand, copious length, a chipper tone,…
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