We Need Never Speak Again
Keep conversations human.
Our mission:
AI is creeping into all parts of our lives. It can be really useful in saving time and making things better.
But as humans there are some things that we want to remain human. One of the most important things to us is our communication - our conversations with each other.
You may have noticed a gradual shift in how things are looking. Work emails have started getting longer, with very regular paragraph spacing, and a tone that you’ve never heard the sender use in everyday life. Newspaper articles are starting to look a bit strange. Let’s not even talk about LinkedIn.
And we understand the creep. You start by just asking AI to check your grammar. Then you ask it to “clean this up and make it a bit shorter”. Then you realise that if you train with past writing then it can even sound “like you”. So if it sounds “like you” then why bother spending time writing it?
But we think that some human conversations do deserve some investment of time. Not all conversations. Maybe not writing to your energy supplier to complain about something.
We are not anti-AI. But we want transparency into when it is being used. Then we can all decide when we’re happy with engaging with something which isn’t entirely human.
We want a democratic way of signaling purely human writing. No paid scheme or standard; not AI auditors, just a simple …
Why …
… the ellipsis comes from the Greek elleipsis, meaning “a falling short” or “leaving out,”
It has a long history of use in literature to reflect human speech. So we think it’s a good signal of human conversation. To say: this might not be perfect, but it’s authentically human.
“We both desired to get into situations, at any rate when any one was speaking, the sort of indefiniteness that is characteristic of all human conversations, and particularly of all English conversations that are almost always conducted entirely by means of allusions and unfinished sentences.”
What can you do:
- Spread the … [PLACEHOLDER: destination for this call to action (D10).]
- Add … to your email signature; [PLACEHOLDER: destination for this call to action (D10).]
- Challenge journalists to use … [PLACEHOLDER: action for this call to action (D10).]
- Buy a t-shirt to start some human conversations;
How can I trust the …?
Simple answer: you can’t. But whilst some humans are good at lying, most humans also have the uniquely human qualities of shame and of being good at spotting deception.
Source:
Ellipsis book:
https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/cmt/?p=4813#_edn1
[PLACEHOLDER: where the badge tool is promoted on the homepage (D10).]
[PLACEHOLDER: shop teaser copy (G2).]