The Tells Were Mine First

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

I built a machine that detects AI writing, and the first thing it did, given enough rope, was call me a robot.

What AI Polish Does to Hunter S. Thompson

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700

I know, it’s probably blasphemy to even mention AI writing in the same sentence as Hunter S. Thompson, but let’s run with it. An AI humanizer applied to his actual writing would have butchered him. The gonzo is the signature. The mangled syntax, the staccato outbursts, the way a sentence pivots mid-thought into something disreputable — those are not flaws an editor needs to clean up. They are the prose. Polish those out and you have not produced Thompson. You have produced a competent stranger’s version of Thompson, which is to say: an unremarkable column. And that doesn’t begin to address the struggles AI would have with nakedly promoting inhuman amounts of illicit drug use.

Writing on Michael Morrison

The Tells Were Mine First

What AI Polish Does to Hunter S. Thompson