In response to Saanya Ojha’s “Yes, I Use AI. No, It’s Not Slop.”
Every so often, someone puts language to something we’ve all felt but haven’t quite articulated. That’s what Saanya Ojha did in her piece, Yes, I Use AI. No, It’s Not Slop.
She captures the tension perfectly: AI has become both essential and suspect. We want to use it to think, to work, to create—but we also don’t want to admit it. Because the moment you say, “Yes, I used AI,” it’s easy to get lumped in with the slopstream. The SEO farms. The half-thought tweets. The engagement bait.
But here’s the thing: I use AI. All the time. Not to write for me, but to help me think through something faster. Sharper. More clearly.
“It’s not doing the thinking, it’s helping me clarify mine.”
— Saanya
That line resonated because it reflects how I use tools across the board—whether it’s Zuko for health optimization, Synk for performance systems, or Korra for property insights. None of them are about replacing the human in the loop. They’re about removing the fog. Unjamming the gears. Getting me to clarity, sooner.
The Slop Problem
Saanya calls it out: we’re drowning in content that’s structurally correct but intellectually hollow. And the worst part? It’s making thoughtful creators afraid to admit they’re using AI at all. Because there’s no shared language yet to separate the signal from the sludge.
That’s where FMAI—Formed Mindfully with AI—comes in. A simple tag. A signal. Like TL;DR or NSFW, it’s a way to say: “Yes, AI was used here—but with authorship, intention, and thought.”
Raising the Floor, Not Automating the Ceiling
At Greyborne, I often use the McDonald’s hamburger analogy when we talk about standardization. AI doesn’t have to serve the Wagyu every time—it just needs to make sure we stop serving garbage. A consistent, safe, trustworthy baseline matters—in medicine, in writing, in systems design.
The ceiling? That still belongs to us. To human judgment. Originality. Taste. Risk.
But the floor? AI can—and should—raise it.
Use the Tools. Own the Thought.
We don’t get extra points for typing every sentence manually. We get points for creating something that’s useful, original, and clear. Great tools should empower that. But they don’t do it for you. They meet you where you are—and ask you to show up too.
AI doesn’t make your ideas better. It just makes them louder, faster, and easier to ship. The quality still comes down to what you’re thinking.
So yeah, I use AI. Not to replace my voice. To sharpen it.
FMAI. Let’s make it a thing.
