In this post, I describe how I use AI when creating this blog.
TL;DR: I use AI for writing code, not creating the content.
I am very much in two minds when it comes to AI.
It’s amazing how a technology like this that was still not very capable just a few years ago, is now everywhere and is reshaping society.
There are so many benefits to it. It enables us to do things we wouldn’t otherwise be able to do, and much more quickly, too. Tedious, time-consuming tasks can now be done in seconds.
However, the downsides are real. AI slop is spreading like the plague. It’s getting increasingly hard to find good, first-hand or even real information when searching the web. We can no longer trust anything. More and more photos are actually not photos at all, but computer-generated fantasies. And the job market for us in tech feels the most insecure it has been since I started my career.
With this in mind, I am trying to be very conscious of how I use AI.
My “AI policy”
This blog is the first non-trivial application I’ve built using AI. Nearly all the technical aspects have been built using Claude Code.
I’m not a skillful developer, and I keep forgetting the syntax between sessions, so I’m perfectly happy outsourcing that bit. However, I have a red line when it comes to the actual content.
After all, if someone can’t be bothered to write something, why should anyone be bothered to read it?
So, here’s my “AI policy” for the blog:
I use AI when…
- Writing the code that generates the pages of the blog (my own publishing system called Magnetizer, written in Python).
- Translating my ideas for the visual design into production-ready CSS and HTML.
- Converting assets to different formats (e.g. base-encoding SVG icons)
- Automating tedious tasks, such as updating categories across multiple blog posts
- Brainstorming
I don’t use AI when…
- Writing or updating the text content for blog posts, other than pure spelling and grammar check, which these days might technically qualify as AI.
- Creating photos or illustrations
If I at any point use AI for content (which I have no intention of doing), I will mark the specific item using the EU’s icons for labelling AI-generated content. If you don’t see any AI icon, you can trust that every word is mine.