You Can Just Say It

Caleb Gross describes a recurring set of arguments for valuing humans and their creative work in the age of AI. These arguments typically claim that AI could "never" do certain jobs, or that humans do them "better," or that subtle stylistic preferences favor human output. He notes the goalposts keep shifting as technology improves.

He argues this approach "dangerously depends on the existing-but-narrowing human-AI capability gap" — one that existed with 2023-era ChatGPT and may or may not persist.

Consider instead

Gross's central thesis is straightforward: "Humans are valuable." He advises other humans to state this plainly without qualifiers, calling it a robust position "not conditional on a point-in-time snapshot of the leading frontier model's score."

Qualities of "quality"

As a secondary discussion, Gross examines how to measure a creative artifact's quality through two components: intent and material form. He argues that many defenses of creative output "focus too much on form at the expense of intent."

He characterizes creation as "the distillation of intent into form," with humans iteratively shaping work to match their mental vision. The peculiar feature of generative AI is that it "can produce substantial form with minimally applied intent" — enabling output even when the human has no clear mental model.

Gross recounts a conversation with his friend Tom Hudson, who said regarding LLM-mediated communication: "If you're going to use an LLM to write me an email, I'd much rather you just send me the prompt; at least then I'd have an idea of what you actually meant to say."

He suggests "AI slop" describes artifacts where intent behind the form is hard to discern, noting humans also produce slop — AI just "lowered the entry barrier for creating intentless form." He adds that for prose, a well-developed prompt may already be "near the intended form."

He concludes: "The pathology of generative AI is that it too easily allows substantial form without discernible intent. That mistake is harder to make when creating by hand."

Footnotes

1. References Genesis 1:27 ("God created man in his own image") and Magnifica Humanitas, §50 from Pope Leo XIV ("Human dignity does not depend on a person's abilities.")
2. Draws a parallel to sacramental theology concepts of matter and form.