What is happening to writing? Essay on AI's impact on prose goes viral

An essay on the Res Obscura Substack about AI's effect on written expression gained traction on Hacker News, examining how AI-generated "slop" is becoming well-liked despite claims otherwise. The author argues that "perfectly formatted writing, with statistics ready at hand" is showing up everywhere because readers enjoy it. The piece reflects on "cognitive debt" from AI tools, the role of Claude Code in development, and what the author calls a crisis in how humans value original expression.

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