Fryday versus AI

I have decided to restart Fryday. 

I’m doing it, in part, because yesterday I promised a very important man in my life that I would and, because he supplies my whiskey, I want to keep him happy.

If you don’t know what Fryday is or have forgotten it, it’s a blog I started anonymously in 1985 to “fry” a panel beater who gave me terrible service. I know it was not particularly laudable, but I wanted to prove the adage that the pen is mightier than the sword by writing a column that would drive him out of business. I failed—the panel beater is still in business, but so, too, is Fryday, which is now perhaps among the oldest blogs in New Zealand.

In the decades I have been writing Fryday, I have rarely been at a loss to find something to say about something. And when perception and situation have failed me, my readers and I have been gifted some wonderful characters such as Cecil S, Sackrider, Whetu, Yoseph Wankerstan, and even George W. Bush to find things to say for me.

Over 1,000 Fryday posts have been published, and responses have varied in number and viewpoint. The one that drew the most responses was one I wrote in 1990 about my ill-fated foray into raising Sea Monkeys. For some obscure reason, Sea Monkeys resonated with readers more than other more frequent characters such as George Bush and Donald Trump.

I have lost many early posts, but you can read more recent posts here.

Another reason I have decided to bring back Fryday is to prove to myself that I can write it better than anybody or anything else.

I am not thinking about you when I make that comparison; I have the long-held belief that anybody can be a good writer, and there is no great mystique about it. Therefore, my issue is not with you—it is with Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

As a professional writer whose income is wholly dependent on my skill, I am often asked if I feel threatened by AI, which seems to be able, if not capable, to write anything. The answer is yes, I do. But I am damned if I will be beaten by it.

That is true, particularly of Fryday.

I plan to use Fryday as a tool to combat AI. While I acknowledge that AI can help improve writing, I refuse to rely on it to create a unique voice or humour, both of which are integral to Fryday and which, in my opinion, AI cannot deliver. However, I may be mistaken, and it remains to be seen whether this experiment with Fryday will prove to be a mistake.

But, I’ll take the risk.

My name is Mike Isle. Fryday is my creation—it’s back, and I hope you enjoy it.