Is Being *Unhinged and Authentic the New Captcha for the Anti-AI Movement

*A little less hinged.

“Showing up online a little unhinged proves that you aren’t using AI, and it’ll set you apart.” A post on LinkedIn read, and it got me thinking. They’re not wrong! Being a little unhinged or quirky, leaning into your authenticity sets most writers apart from ChatGPT Slop.

I knew the power of writing when I wrote a poem about my angsty teenage feelings, and my mother found it and immediately confiscated it.

Chat doesn’t have a backstory. Chat didn’t fall in love with books at their local library and pick up writing them because their brother told them to “go write one.” Chat wasn’t roughing it on MSN Groups, handwriting B2k Fanfiction, and chapter by chapter turning it into classmates in high school, to the point where they got in trouble in class, and the teachers would confiscate their notebooks.

The most compelling copy comes from lived experiences, and Chat has not lived. Right now, there’s someone out there launching their business blog with GPT doing all the writing. The biggest asset that a business has is its people. People aren’t buying what you’re selling, but why you started and still sell it. And if we really wanted to get a little less hinged, people buy on feelings, not facts, because people don’t remember what you did, but how you made them feel.

I’ll never forget the panic that set in when my big cousin taught me how to swim at Boyce Park Wave Pool, and after playing around in the shallow, she dropped me in the deep end and told me to swim before the waves came. It was legit sink or swim, but I rose to the occasion. It’s the adrenaline from sneaking into the G-Eazy VIP at a fancy club in Vegas and laughing about it later. It’s the stories that set the writers and the copy-and-paste Chat people apart.

If I’m being honest, it’s the agony of searching for the words that makes writing such a rewarding experience. Once the words are strung together the way that one wants them to be, there’s no feeling like it. I wasn’t on punishment often, but when my mother would send me to my room, I would be delighted, as I knew that there were books there.