Having jobs for the sake of having jobs is a ridiculous proposition. Copywriting is largely obsolete. Sure, it sucks to be in that profession right now, but what alternative is there. A Machine does your job far cheaper than you and even right now it is "good enough" to replace everything but the most complex and demanding writing.
Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"
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Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"
#12If a human component is required in addition to the cheaply machine-automated part, that belies the claim that 'most of the work has already been done'. The human part, turning it from slop to polished, becomes the most important part of the work, and then (and in any case) should be paid at human rates.
This doesn't really address anything, though. The human part will be 10x more productive when they're polishing than when they're having to start with a blank page, and now nine nearly as competent, experienced people have been fired and are offering to work for less than you're being paid. Poof! It's now a minimum wage job, and has barely gotten any easier.
They can actually just hire the worst of you (who will do unpaid overtime, and let you call him a dummy when you're upset), because it's not a big deal that he's only 5x as fast as you used to be compared to your 10x as fast as you used to be. They can't even attract that much business now because the lowest end of the market completely disappeared and is doing it at home by themselves.
Prepress/typesetting work went from a highly-specialized job that you spent years mastering and could raise a family with to a still moderately difficult job that paid just above minimum wage within a single generation, just due to Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Those tools don't even generate anything resembling a final product, they just make the job digital instead of physical. In the case of copywriting, AI instantly generates something that a lazy person could ship with.
Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"
#13[flagged]
Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"
#14[flagged]
Remember, it is the advent of grift.
It's time to get your bag before the AI bubble pops.
Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"
#15[flagged]
This is a bit of an odd post to attach that comment to, but here you go: https://simonwillison.net/about/#disclosures
Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"
#16My additional commentary on this one is not worth much - I suggest reading the original article instead: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/i-was-forced-to-use-ai-u...
Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"
#17Having jobs for the sake of having jobs is a ridiculous proposition. Copywriting is largely obsolete. Sure, it sucks to be in that profession right now, but what alternative is there. A Machine does your job far cheaper than you and even right now it is "good enough" to replace everything but the most complex and demanding writing.
Government job programs were a defining feature of economic prosperity during the New Deal. Saying jobs for the sake of jobs are bad isn’t historically true.
Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"
#18A couple friends have been laid off in fields similar, where AI is excelling and reducing demand for labor significantly, and it seems they’re mostly unaware and saying/thinking it’s the job market that is tough / time of year and maybe it will improve in 2026 as budgets are executed. I’ve not had the heart to tell them they will likely need to change careers. And that’s if they can, in my opinion the faster they realize that the better off they will be. I don’t think the laypersons familiarity with AI right now understand that this is full out reductive in labor and there is no substitute.
Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"
#19If a human component is required in addition to the cheaply machine-automated part, that belies the claim that 'most of the work has already been done'. The human part, turning it from slop to polished, becomes the most important part of the work, and then (and in any case) should be paid at human rates.
Agreed. We seem to be here:
"Gamblers generate slop, businessmen sell it as 'AI-powered.'"
Something important is missing.