Plato was scared by writing, but at least he had a clear argument. Medium’s Curators are scared by AI, are they right?
During last weeks Medium Curators decided to restrict the partner program to AI-generated content. They also claimed they are fighting low-quality content. Does it make sense?
A premise
What I am writing here is just a reflection. I do not claim to be right, but I would like to open a broader discussion on the topics of AI-generated content and ‘low-quality’.
The issue
In the myth of Thamus and Theuth (Phaedrus 274b–278d), Plato showed his aversion to writing. In his view, writing would have created forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The only way to the knowledge was oral tradition, not writing. This may seem weird, but it is the usual aversion that big inventions face.
As Plato was averse to writing, Medium curators appears to be against AI. During last weeks, Terrie Schweitzer and Buster Benson wrote two distinct articles where they declared to be against AI-generated content because it is ‘low-quality’ content. To ‘protect’ readers from ‘low-quality’ content, a new policy has been introduced in Medium…
