Mastodawn

I get asked to show up to book clubs, online and offline. Here is why from now on the answer is always "no." If you think this might have something to do with "AI" ruining yet another thing for everyone, you're absolutely 100% correct.

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/03/03/indefinite-book-club-hiatus/

Indefinite Book Club Hiatus

Today in “Things that ‘AI’ has ruined”: No, I won’t be able to show up to your book club’s online/offline gathering, and the reason for this is simple: I, and li…

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That Dinkum Thinkum Mar 4

@scalzi Same situation here for predatory science conferences. No way I can go through all the fake invitations. The amount exploded after “AI” became mainstream. There is a set of established ones I pick myself and the only way new ones can get through all the spam is through direct (human) contact. Sad, but true.

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jsl

@bigz @scalzi Pre-Covid we lived in a time where we attended science/ literature conferences in person. Then, Covid made the human contact deadly and everything went online. Now, as a result of AI spam, real conferences & book clubs require direct human-to-human transmission of the invite.
So, in a strange way, AI drives people back from digital-only interactions to face-to-face communication. That's not a bad thing... (except for Covid & Co still being out there)