Stance on AI

Scribbo is anti-AI technology. By being built on end-to-end encryption, we ensure no one—not even my company—can train AI on your work. Further, Scribbo does not and never will have any features that utilize AI. This is a foundational moral principle of our software.

Why do we feel so strongly, though? Our philosophy has two pillars.

Pillar 1: AI undermines artists

This point needs little explanation for anyone who has been paying attention to the advances in AI since around 2023. With a click of a button, anyone in the world can summon an image, video, or blurb of text in any style, on any topic, for any purpose. For many, this is a magic superpower. For those who created the artistic works the technology is built from, it is theft. I don’t care what the law ends up saying about this: it is morally wrong to use our creative output to create technology that replaces us. Especially without compensation. Even if the technology is useful, it is illegal.

Pillar 2: AI undermines art itself

Let’s start with the qualifcation that AI can be used for utilitarian purposes that are not the target of this section: proofreading, research, searching through text. While these use cases still use illegal technology, in my view they do not interfere with the artistic quality of the works created using such methods.

OK, now the stance: Generating words with AI is not writing. Asking ChatGPT to autogenerate a paragraph describing a mountain range works great if you want to read a description of mountains, but this isn’t writing about mountains. The art of writing is like sculpting: by choosing each and every word, we gradually refine stories from big ugly blocks to intricate beautiful fractals of human expression. You can’t automate that. It’s OK if you enjoy reading AI-generated writing—sometimes it can be good!—but Scribbo is for the act of writing. Writing a story, one word at a time. Reading it, revising, reading again, revising again. Trying to understand what you feel and what you want to express. Inventing a new plot point as you’re describing that vase in the kitchen.

There are plenty of AI-centric writing tools out there if you want to use AI to “write”. Don’t use Scribbo for that.