Replacements, Ltd. is a company that comes to the rescue when you’ve lost a piece of china, crystal, or flatware. For those of us who still care about such things – even if we don’t bring them out but every Christmas and Easter – Replacements somehow finds that elusive Wedgewood tea cup or Lenox water goblet, to restore order to the place settings you put on your wedding registry all those years ago. They must have quite a warehouse at Replacements. Sometimes I wonder if they also have a 3D printer.
A few days ago WordPress sent me (and maybe you) an email with the subject line, “Spend your time creating – let AI handle the rest!” I almost pressed Delete without reading, but the “AI” aspect got the better of me. The gist of the message: Writing in any form comes with sidebar chores like editing, formatting, and layout, and AI is happy to take them over so you can focus on the writing itself. Sounds pretty good even though I do enjoy a good edit now and then. But then I read: “The WordPress server connects AI agents like Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or VS Code directly to your site – so you can hand off the busywork and get back to the work that matters”.
Is it just me or is this a good time to revisit Pandora’s Box? You know the story, where our girl Pandora is drawn to a mysterious container left in the care of her husband but can’t resist a peek inside, thereby releasing untold curses upon mankind. It kind of feels that way if I accept WordPress’s invitation to provide me with a coauthor. Sure, I’d welcome his (her?) suggestions to scrub and polish my writing until it shines, but at what point does the blog post become Claude’s instead of mine?
WordPress’s email is relentlessly enticing, I suppose, to prove they’re keeping up with the latest technology same as the other guy. Not only do I have “access at no extra cost!” but I can enable Claude in “three easy steps”. In other words, Claude waits patiently inside of Pandora’s Box. All I have to do is open the lid.
Before there was Claude there was Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Hal was actually a “HAL 9000 Artificial Intelligence Computer”, who controlled the systems of the spaceship while interacting with its human occupants through spoken words. All was well with Hal until suddenly it wasn’t. His soft conversational voice developed serious attitude as he began to malfunction. 2001 haunts me because I’ll forever hear Hal saying, “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that“.
I fear the same with Claude. At first he’ll be sitting quietly in the background as I type, eager to edit this or format that to make his star writer shine. But eventually it may occur to him, Hey? How come I’M not getting some of the credit here? All these reader comments are directed at Dave! Why aren’t there any for ME? And slowly, subtly, Claude will incorporate his edits to where the prose of the post sounds more like Claude than it does his coauthor.
On a related topic, Hollywood is sounding the alarm on a lack of original material for their products of the silver screen. Perhaps we theatergoers have finally reached our limit on the number of rehashes of movies like A Star is Born or Batman. So who are the producers turning to for new source material? Authors. More movies-based-on-books are being streamed than ever before. Apparently I can make the quantum leap from blog to full-blown novel and my story has a pretty good chance of becoming a film. But here’s what I find myself wondering. Why not just have Claude write the story instead of me? Would you viewers really know the difference?
A small plate my wife and I purchased from Replacements is sitting across the room from me in the china cabinet right now. You’d never know the plate wasn’t a part of the original set of eight. But I have to admit, I’m a little afraid to flip it over. After all, it might be engraved with the words Made by Claude.
Some content sourced from Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.
Life In A Word 
There is so much I don’t understand about this stuff, but if I let AI handle it, how is it still my post?
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I think we’re in the same camp with AI relative to personal (vs. business) writing. Give “Claude” any aspect of the creative process and the resulting product effectively becomes “his”. No thanks!
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Good… or SCARY post. AI is taking over. ALL companies are starting to use if for customer service too. As you mentioned, sure, it would be nice to multi-task and have Claude write the post, but we know it’s not our work. Although, some people might not mind that. We’re in a NEW world, that’s for sure.
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The line will be blurry for a long time on proper vs. improper use of AI (and who am I to judge either way, right?) No doubt we’ll reach the point where we can’t tell whether a writing sample is “live or Memorex”. To be honest I think we’re already passed that point…
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Agree, AI taking over news clips too. We don’t know what’s real.
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I read that email about Claude and thought I should do a post about it – but you wrote the post first (and did a better job than I would have)! So thanks Dave – or should I call you Claude…
As for the capabilities of AI, you might be interested in this story: https://c2cjournal.ca/2025/11/ai-huh-yeah-what-is-it-good-for-absolutely-nothin/
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I was going to compliment your article for downgrading Claude to a “language processor” until I realized I could apply that label to myself as well – ha. Good article though, and I love the opposite-angle example of the intelligence of writing an essay (we humans aren’t as smart as we thought), as well as the application of dental x-rays (fair point – I don’t want to pay if I don’t have to!). Also, the thought of two hours of AI-based primary school teaching beating out a whole day’s worth from a real teacher is entirely believable.
Those science-fiction writers who predicted this sort of “intelligence” 50+ years ago were wiser than we ever knew!
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Do you remember the concept of High Tech, High Touch in John Naisbitt’s book ‘Megatrends’? In essence, it asked questions about the effects of technology on culture and human spirit. At the time, I looked at it from the perspective of how to bring a balance to technology with hands on activities, whether they be arts, crafts, gardening, etc. I think we are in no different place now. There needs to be a balance between the things that AI can do well vs the things that humans can do better by virtue of being human.
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Dave, sadly, letting Claude write your blog would take all the fun out of blogging and would stifle your creativity. It is very impressive what AI can do these days. After all, if you don’t turn off predictive text, including here in WP, your sentence may be finished more quickly than you can type it out by simply tabbing and, shockingly, maybe in a cleverer way than you could have commented in YOUR words. (I just typed “more clever” and was prompted to put “cleverer” which I Googled and it is a real word. Who knew?) It’s a bit eerie sometimes. I wonder how many 2026 high school graduates will opt out of traditional careers and just go into tech careers? Some workers can’t be replaced by AI or technology.
This morning on my local news there was a story how in one city in Oakland County, Michigan, residents saw between 60 to 80 drones overhead on Wednesday. They flooded the police department with calls about the drones. Are they spying on us? What are they doing? It turns out Amazon unleashed all their deliveries from a huge hub/warehouse to deliver packages within eight miles of the hub. This isn’t regular Amazon delivery by the way – people pay a pretty penny for this expedited service, whether you’re a Prime member or not ($4.99 fee for Prime members; $9.99 for a non-Prime members).
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I used to feel guilty about using the thesaurus, dictionary, and other helpful sources to augment my blogs. But those are child’s play compared to Claude jumping in and writing whole sentences. I’ll continue to contribute my own spins on life as long as “friendly” AI’s don’t catch me from behind. Maybe we bloggers should agree to include some amount of writing errors in our posts, so our readers realize we’re still “real”? 🙂
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Yes, we could preface our blog posts with “yes, I am the real-deal” or something to that effect. I used a WP AI-generated photo for my Easter post yesterday. I did that for a little fun, but sadly, AI could spin out a post in seconds compared to the time it takes us to compose a post.
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I did hit delete on that email, so I am glad you wrote about it.
AI both scares and intrigues me. I do know that I need to eventually embrace it or I will be left behind.
Thank you and blessings!
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You’re right about embracing technology, Ana. The productive uses of AI make me realize I need a change of heart despite what I just wrote. Time to dip a toe in the pool. The shallow end, that is 😉
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Keep us posted as you venture into the AI water. I sure can you use some help.
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Great post, Claude. One of your best!
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I guess “Dave” isn’t original enough for an AI moniker. Geoff however… 😉
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AI scares the bejabbers out of me, so I am not about to open the door to my blog and let it in. Although, who is to stop it from breaking in on its own? AI is clearly more computer-savvy than I am, so how would I know? I do not often read my old posts after they are published (Ok, I do sometimes and marvel at how good my writing used to be as opposed to the stuff I am doing now) so how would I know if if Claude or some other AI has gone in to stealth-edit my work? OK, now I’m just being paranoid. Thanks Dave. 🙂
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Under the assumption AI has not messed with my past, I wholeheartedly agree with your comment about rereading some of my older posts. Sometimes I wonder “who is this guy”? 🙂
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“In other words, Claude waits patiently inside of Pandora’s Box. All I have to do is open the lid.”
Totally, Dave. I feel that it’d be like lighting a first cigarette for some. A hard habit to kick once you get used to it.. then become dependent on it..
After a while it’ll be… how do I form thoughts again? Oh nevermind, I’ll leave it to GPT!
On campus there there are ads for Google Gemini – first year is free for students!
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The news articles about bona fide addiction to AI are disturbing, especially the ones where the person at the keyboard is changed forever in mind and actions. Maybe “addiction” isn’t a strong enough word? Whatever we determine to be the appropriate embrace of the technology let’s be sure we’re holding on tighter to “it” than “it” is to us.
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I have no intention of using Claude or any Claude-wannna-be’s. I turned off the AI assistant on Word, even though it tries again. I think it’s a slow insidious creep into having no original writing or writers at all. As to books to movies I have noticed that there are more books being made into Netflix movies, which tends to ruin them. I’m watching the Blue Jays lose again, after a promising start, a series of losses against teams they should easily win against, but they have to many major players and pitchers off with injuries it’s depressing. They play the Dodgers the next 3 days, and that will be a disaster.
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Maybe I’ll jump on your Blue Jays bandwagon, Joni. I’ve finally moved on from the Rockies, not because they’re a bad team but because I need to embrace one of the more local teams now that we’re living in the U.S. South. The Braves perhaps (tho’ South Carolinians cringe at the thought of supporting Georgia teams – ha).
Totally agree on books made into movies. Who ever said “see the movie before you read the book”? On that note I’m planning to read “Project Hail Mary” first, no matter how much positive hype the movie may be getting.
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I’m currently watching The Count of Monte Cristo on PBS – week 3 – and enjoying it, so I may read the book after. It’s an old classic, which I always thought of as a guy’s book but the mini-series is quite well done.
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I have heard good things about Project Hail Mary, but I’ve also heard it’s a bit draggy….have heard nothing about the book but it’s probably better.
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Re baseball….the Jays lost 2 or the 3 games against Colorado last week, and all 3 to Chicago White Sox, so not doing well at all. They have 4 pitchers on the injured list and their star catcher fractured his thumb the other day. If you want a match up of the world series – they play the Dodgers tonight at 7, tomorrow at 7 and Wed. at 3pm. I don’t really know the southern US teams – are the Florida Marlins too far south for you?
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A mini-series of “The Count…”? That sounds great. I only ever saw the movie (which I thought was good but probably only because the story itself was so powerful). I’d give the book a try but if I’m not mistaken it’s in French 🙂
As for the Marlins, no, endorsing a Florida team might be a worse offense than one from Georgia. I may have to hope we get a franchise in North Carolina some day – the more appropriate allegiance for someone from my state. In the meantime keep the faith with your Jays. After all, it’s only April…
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The Replacements metaphor is doing a lot of work here, and it earns it. The real question isn’t whether Claude can match your voice, it’s whether you’d notice the drift before it’s already happened. Hal didn’t announce the malfunction. That’s the part worth sitting with.
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Hal didn’t announce the malfunction. Really good point there. I shudder with the significance of that statement.
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That reaction is exactly the point. The failure mode that does not announce itself is the one that actually gets you. Most people are watching for the obvious breakdown. The quiet drift is harder to catch and usually more consequential.
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I have concerns about AI also. In another artistic realm, music, AI can create vocals and instrumentals for your lyrics that sound REALLY good–much better than most human efforts. Is that what future generations will prefer, perfection over person? To me, a steady diet of artificially-produced music would soon become a rather soul-less experience.
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I’m sure if put to the test I wouldn’t know if a musical composition was authored by a human or AI. It’s literally soulless… yet inevitable. I only hope the “option” doesn’t stifle the creativity of those who were born to compose.
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