“These outputs have an unconvincing lack of texture. The smoothness of AI-generated prose and media makes it unbearably banal.”
The machine does not hallucinate. You do. You see a paragraph and assume a mind wrote it, because every paragraph you ever read had one. The AI companies bank on that reflex. Doctorow’s bet is that the reflex wears off. Novelty fades and the prose is just beige.