March 3, 2026
Bots: read-only, please
Don't Make Me Talk to Your Chatbot
We came to hear from you, not your robot
TLDR: A columnist proposes simple etiquette: don’t paste AI output into human chats—share your own point. Commenters rallied against “AI slop” and called forced bot interactions rude, while others defended helpful customer support bots; the debate shows new rules forming for when machines assist and when people should speak.
The internet just staged an intervention: stop making us talk to your chatbot. A punchy essay laid it out—paste-dumps of AI text feel like lazy, bloated “slop” that buries what the human actually thinks. The crowd largely nodded, calling it a basic courtesy: if you want our attention, share your thoughts, not your bot’s. One commenter fumed that forcing chatbot interactions is simply “rude,” while another joked that typos are the new proof-of-life. Meanwhile, a practical camp piped up: customer support bots can be lifesavers—like ATMs for answers—when they actually solve problems fast.
Drama? Oh yes. The anti-slop squad rallied behind Cory Doctorow’s “No one wants to read your AI slop” and the essay’s rule: the only acceptable pro-AI stance is joining Team Anti-Slop. Skeptics countered with a nuance take: use AI to edit, sure—but curate, trim, lead with your intent. Engineers even dragged coding agents for writing pull request blurbs that list everything and explain nothing, proposing a quick fix: add a short human frame on top. The memes flowed—“misspell a word for authenticity,” “no em dashes” prompts—and one snark about fake call-center voicebots got boos. The mood: bots are fine as tools, but don’t make them the conversation.
Key Points
- •The article introduces the principle: don’t make others read uncurated chatbot output in human conversations.
- •Pasting AI-generated text often results in verbose, unfocused communication that obscures the author’s intention.
- •AI can be acceptable if used to craft clear, reader-centered, standalone communication with deliberate effort.
- •Recommended process: determine what you want to say, then say it; clear writing stems from clear thinking.
- •When sharing AI output, make it shorter and lead with key points; for PRs, add a short human blurb to frame intent.