PTPL 220 · Would you rather: generative AI, or Comic Sans? (Poll results from 677 people)

Stop reading now if you aren’t interested in a nuanced take on both of them Photo and text by the author I’m not usually into the would you rather game, but this one on Mastodon caught my attention. We were asked to choose which we preferred: an AI generated poster, or a poster made by hand but set in Comic Sans. Unsurprisingly (given the type of people I follow) 98% of 677 respondents opted for Comic Sans! Some reported that it was a close call. Other comments: I miss the days where Comic Sans was the problem Give me a poor font choice made by a real human please There’s no guarantee the AI-generated one wouldn’t be set in Comic Sans…or something even worse [Ed: scary thought!] For the record, I’m unapologetically okay with the careful, thought-provoking use of AI. Anne-Laure Le Cunff uses it to create illustrative artwork for her newsletter, and Mike Schmitz promotes it as a thinking partner. I use it on occasion for verifiable research and to pose questions to prompt my thinking…