
Taste Will Save Us from AI
From The Culture We Deserve by Jessa Crispin
March 26, 2026 · 1h 59m · Season 2 · Episode 100
About this episode
Jessa and Nico discuss the implications of AI in creative fields and the importance of maintaining high standards in arts and culture.
Welcome to the 100th episode of The Culture We Deserve -- we really need to rethink our lives. The novel Shy Girl was recently pulled from publication after accusations that the author Mia Ballard used AI during its writing. As arts and culture is infiltrated with LLMs and slop, it doesn't say great things about the future that Hachette, one of the world's largest publishers, can't tell AI from human creativity. But with our standards so low anyway, does any of this matter? What will save us from the slop machines? Jessa and Nico discuss how we recreate taste and high standards, how the institutions of academia, publishing, and music have led us here, and whether it matters if your fantasies are written by human or machine. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com
People in this episode
Host: Jessa Crispin
Guest: Nico
Topics covered
- AI in arts
- publishing standards
- human creativity
- taste
- cultural criticism
Keywords
- AI
- publishing
- creativity
- taste
- cultural standards
- Shy Girl
- Mia Ballard
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Hachette
Books & works: Shy Girl
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