Taste Will Save Us from AI

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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