Revulsion against AI

The teaser I had to click said that it was a way to get around AI “chekers”–that is to say, AI programs designed to detect AI writing–suggesting that one way it humanizes AI text is to insert misspellings.

OK, I’m a retired English professor and writing teacher.  I’m thankful to be out of my profession due to the tsunami of AI-enabled cheating that makes teaching meaningless.

Academic integrity has been one of my core vocational values, and I have always abominated plagiarism in all its forms.  Now AI has blown through all of that.  And some educators have accepted this.

What bothers me in particular about this ad is that it is so brazen.  It is promoting not only cheating but offering a way to avoid getting caught in public.  The product is openly advertised on a reputable website.  There is no no furtiveness, no shame.

And then there is this:  Trusted by students at Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and the University of Chicago?  This makes me not trust students at Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and the University of Chicago!

The ad uses the logos of those top universities.  Usually, you can’t do that without getting permission.  Did the schools give permission for this use by a plagiarism-enabling company?  Maybe it was a routine approval, not knowing what “Humanize”–which is certainly sounds like an ethical company–is all about.  Then again, we can hardly trust the plagiarism-enabling company to follow copyright and trademark laws.  (The other possibility is that these are not really the universities’ logos but are themselves AI-generated.  A quick check suggests, though, that these are legit.)

The point, is, the ad talks of “trust,” which is ironic because the product is designed specifically to deceive, to make a reader trust what should not be trusted.  But can the very concept of trust survive in an AI universe?

My reaction to this ad ties into a broader phenomenon described in Wired Magazine, no less, in an article by Reece Rogers entitled The AI Backlash Keeps Growing Stronger.  The teaser reads, “As generative artificial intelligence tools continue to proliferate, pushback against the technology and its negative impacts grows stronger.”

The article begins with describing what happened when a foreign-language learning app announced, proudly, that it was becoming an “AI-first company,” replacing human contractors with the latest AI technology.  This prompted a backlash from users, who made it a social media phenomenon to post pictures of themselves deleting the app.  Rogers goes on:

Diane Hamilton has written another article on the subject for Forbes entitled The Rise Of AI Resentment At Work: Why Employees Are Pushing Back.  She writes,

AI has been positioned as a tool to make work easier, but many employees aren’t experiencing the benefits firsthand. A 2023 Pew Research study found that while nearly two-thirds of Americans expect AI to have a major impact on the workforce, only 13% believe it will personally help them. Instead, they fear job loss, increased surveillance, and a lack of control over their own work.

Some of this resentment stems from the fact that automation often prioritizes efficiency over employee well-being. When AI is implemented in a way that replaces rather than enhances human work, it can lead to job insecurity, increased pressure to adapt, and a sense of being devalued.

The resentment isn’t just coming from frontline workers—managers are feeling it too. AI-driven performance tracking, automated hiring tools, and decision-making algorithms can leave leaders feeling like they have less control over their own teams. Instead of empowering managers, AI can sometimes sideline their expertise, making them feel like their judgment is being replaced by machine-driven metrics.