Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry" • Hacker News Board

Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"

#21

Post by MangoToupe » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 4:28 PM UTC

simonw wrote: post #3

rfarley04 wrote: post #2

I'm a full time copywriter for SaaS companies and I'm actually finding the opposite. My experience is people are having AI write stuff then trying to massage it themselves. When they can't get it to a point where they're happy with it they eventually just throw up their hands and hire me for pre-AI project scopes with 2025 rates. Not saying that's the experience everywhere, but AI has been much less problematic for m…

That's interesting. A problem I have with Brian Merchant's reporting on this is that he put out a call for stories from people who have lost their jobs to AI and so that's what he got. What's missing is a clear indication of the size of this problems. Are there a small number of copywriters who have been affected in this way or is it endemic to the industry as a whole? I'd love to see larger scale data on this. As fa…

> he put out a call for stories from people who have lost their jobs to AI

This seems like an inherently terrible way to look for a story to report. Not only are you unlikely to know if you didn't find work because an AI successfully replaced you, but it's likely to attract the most bitter people in the industry looking for someone to blame.

And, btw, I hate how steeply online content has obviously crashed in quality. It's very obvious that AI has destroyed most of what passed as "reporting" or even just "listicles". But there are better ways to measure this than approaching this from a labor perspective, especially as these jobs likely aren't coming back from private equity slash-and-burning the industry.

Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"

#22

Post by MangoToupe » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 4:28 PM UTC

bdcravens wrote: post #10

readthenotes1 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't remember which pundit said it, but his theory was that only the best would stay employed and that they would be valued for their high skill

Perhaps, but then it becomes a buyer's market, and salaries will reflect that.

> and salaries will reflect that.

Hilariously naive.

Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"

#23

Post by zem » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 4:29 PM UTC

constantcrying wrote: post #11

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.

requiring people to work for the sake of requiring them to work is also ridiculous, yet here we are. once a good basic income and guaranteed housing program is put into place we can get rid of bullshit jobs as a class.

Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"

#24

Post by singpolyma3 » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 4:30 PM UTC

The problem isn't getting rid if people's jobs. Jobs are not inherently valuable. The problem is we have not built a society or economy where everyone can thrive regardless of their employment.

Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"

#25

Post by MangoToupe » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 4:30 PM UTC

constantcrying wrote: post #11

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.

> A Machine does your job far cheaper than you and even right now it is "good enough"

No, it's not, and the steep decline in quality of writing has reflected this. The industry is just committing suicide.

Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"

#26

Post by simonw » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 4:31 PM UTC

MangoToupe wrote: post #21

simonw wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting. A problem I have with Brian Merchant's reporting on this is that he put out a call for stories from people who have lost their jobs to AI and so that's what he got. What's missing is a clear indication of the size of this problems. Are there a small number of copywriters who have been affected in this way or is it endemic to the industry as a whole? I'd love to see larger scale data on this. As fa…

> he put out a call for stories from people who have lost their jobs to AI This seems like an inherently terrible way to look for a story to report. Not only are you unlikely to know if you didn't find work because an AI successfully replaced you, but it's likely to attract the most bitter people in the industry looking for someone to blame. And, btw, I hate how steeply online content has obviously crashed in quality…

Collecting personal stories from people - and doing background reporting to verify those people are credible - is a long standing journalistic tradition. I think it's valuable, and Brian did it very well here (he's a veteran technology reporter).

It doesn't tell the whole story though. That's why I always look for multiple angles and sources on an issue like this (here that's the impact of AI on freelance copywriting.)

Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"

#27

Post by icegreentea2 » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 4:34 PM UTC

When I feel deeply cynical about the quality of our modern life, I imagine that one of the reasons it's so easy for us to "settle" for the "good enough" output of AI in certain areas, especially around corporate copywriting, art, and yes perhaps even code is that these areas already fundamentally suck.

I believe that good skillful writing, drawing, or coding, by a human who actually understands and believes in what they're doing can really elevate the merely "good" to excellent.

However, when I think about the reality of most corporate output, we're not talking about "good" as a baseline level that we are trying to elevate. We're usually talking about "just barely not crap" in the best case, to straight up garbage in maybe a more common case.

Everyone understands this, from the consumer to the "artist" (perhaps programmer), to the manager, to the business owner. And this is why using AI slop is so easy to embrace in so many areas. The human touch was previously being used in barely successful attempts to put a coat of paint over some obvious turds. They were barely succeeding anyways, the crap stunk through. May as well let AI pretend to try, and we'll keep trying until the wheels finally fall off.

Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"

#28

Post by tmoertel » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 4:34 PM UTC

MangoToupe wrote: post #21

simonw wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting. A problem I have with Brian Merchant's reporting on this is that he put out a call for stories from people who have lost their jobs to AI and so that's what he got. What's missing is a clear indication of the size of this problems. Are there a small number of copywriters who have been affected in this way or is it endemic to the industry as a whole? I'd love to see larger scale data on this. As fa…

> he put out a call for stories from people who have lost their jobs to AI This seems like an inherently terrible way to look for a story to report. Not only are you unlikely to know if you didn't find work because an AI successfully replaced you, but it's likely to attract the most bitter people in the industry looking for someone to blame. And, btw, I hate how steeply online content has obviously crashed in quality…

> This seems like an inherently terrible way to look for a story to report.

But it’s probably a great way create a story to generate clicks. The people who respond to calls like this one are going to come from the extreme end of the distribution. That makes for a sensational story. But that also makes for a story that doesn't represent the reality as most people will experience it, rather the worst case.

Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"

#29

Post by AndrewKemendo » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 4:37 PM UTC

simonw wrote: post #16

My 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...

Even that short changes the original source:

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/i-was-forced-to-use-ai-u...

I bookmarked the series which looks exactly like what everyone in tech is saying ISN’T happening:

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/s/ai-killed-my-job

But I’m sure somebody will blow this off as “it’s only three examples and is not really representative”

But if it is representative…

“then it’s not as bad as other automation waves”

or if it is as bad as other automation waves…

“well there’s nothing you can do about it”

Anecdotally I was in an Uber yesterday on the way to a major Metropolitan airport and we passed a Waymo. I asked the Uber driver how they felt about Waymo and Uber collaborating and if he felt like it was a threat to his job.

His answer was basically “yes it is but there’s nothing anybody can do about it you can’t stop technology it’s just part of life.”

If that’s how people who are being replaced feel about it, while still continuing to do the things necessary to train the systems, then there will be assuredly no human future (at least not one that isn’t either subsistence or fully machine integrated) because the people being replaced don’t feel like they have the capacity to stand up to it.

Re: Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"

#30

Post by jaccola » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 4:37 PM UTC

dymk wrote: post #17

constantcrying wrote: post #11

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.

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.

People doing jobs with no inherent value still need food, shelter, healthcare,… all provided by other people. Further, the cost difference (for there must be a cost difference or we wouldn’t have anyone choosing AI) must come from somewhere, that money is not being used to pay people (or even the same person) doing productive work.

I can see some limited scenarios in up and coming industries or strategically important industries where government job programs could be at least argued for.

The copywriting industry is clearly not either of those.