LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Several people have approached me, or sent notes, all circling the same question:
“Your writing seems looser lately.”
C.D. Kaplan, a seasoned turner of phrases himself, put it that way just the other day. Others have described it as having more flair or color. A few haven’t cared for it.
Let’s just say a small circle of readers has asked me what’s up. Some wondered if it had to do with Rick Bozich retiring. Others thought maybe I was just writing more (or sleeping less).
It’s neither. The answer is artificial intelligence. Just not in the way you’re probably thinking.
Yesterday, a colleague published a fantastic piece—timely, exclusive, an interview with a key decision-maker. When I tried to pull it up, my subscription had lapsed. So I conducted an experiment.
I dropped the link into a large language model and asked for a summary. Between what it could access, what aggregators had written about his piece or taken from it, and existing commentaries, it produced a 150-word summary. Then, when prompted, a more detailed 450-word version.
And when I finally read the original?
Unfortunately, it was accurate. And unfortunately, this has been the case for a while.
The journalist who did the work—and the publication that paid him—had been bypassed. As a journalist, I hate it. But as a journalist, I also have to find a way to survive it.
The game has changed. So my game had to change a little.
I’ve always tried to write with a dry humor. Subtle. We can quibble about whether I succeeded, but that was the intent. The main thing has always been to be fair. You can quibble about that, too. But the effort was there.
Now, the goal—when every Google search begins with an AI summary—is to write in a way that makes people want to click anyway. Maybe it’s a line. A metaphor. A simile. Something stupid but sticky.
Whatever it is, it has to be something AI can’t give you in a summary. It has to be something you experience.
So here I am, writing like the words will be read in a noisy bar. I’m not proud of it. I’ve put my ego into witness protection. I write like the delete key is rigged to a trapdoor. I chase punchlines like a dog chases a mail truck: loud, fast, and with no real plan if I catch one.
See? Why say James Franklin was “fired” when I can say that he was “launched like a pumpkin at a fall festival?” All it takes is a total lack of conscience.
I’m not saying it always works. After covering my second straight Tipoff Luncheon and maybe the fifth coach speech in as many days, I filed a column on Pat Kelsey’s Tuesday Tipoff talk like a man whose rent depended on making it interesting. In fact, maybe I wrote it like rent and a new water heater depended on it. I gigged Kelsey for repeating some of his signature lines: “Culture still eats strategy for lunch,” I wrote, and so on.
At Louisville’s media day Wednesday afternoon, Kelsey got me back. Every time he mentioned one of his core tenets, he said: “I know Eric hates it when I talk about culture.”
Who knew? Culture also eats columnists for lunch. Look, it’s all a work in progress. I’m not going to lie; I was just glad somebody read it.
That’s the whole point. To make this stuff fun. Sure, there are serious stories, real-life adversity, and inspiring triumphs. But most of us get enough harshness out in the world. We come to sports to laugh, to think, to feel like we’re not alone when our team drives us crazy. And, if we can, we like to feel lifted up or inspired along the way.
I don’t know how much longer jobs like mine will exist. When I was growing up, I could read dozens of columnists, if I could get my hands on their newspapers or spend enough time in Hawley-Cooke Bookstore on a Sunday. Now? Not too many.
So I’ll keep offering this (ahem) public service as long as I can.
An AI summary can tell you what I wrote about.
But it won’t tell you why Pat Kelsey went all 25 Strong on me at media day.
So, for those wondering, that’s what’s up.
Quick Sips
COFFEE TALK: If you missed yesterday’s “Coffee with Crawford,” you missed a few good nuggets from John Calipari and Jeff Walz. Catch up by clicking here.
QUARTERBACK USAGE: Louisville football coach Jeff Brohm said he might use different quarterbacks depending on the package Friday at Miami. But don’t get the idea that anyone except Miller Moss is running the offense on the field. Read here.
The Last Drop
“I'm a big tagline guy, you know. Eric knows that I like to, you know, sell umbrellas to people in the Sahara. And I like energy, and like that's who I am, right? He loves that about me. But in terms of the marketing part, I never came up with a word. And I just don't think at Louisville you need a word every year. You don't need a big marketing slogan to get the people in this town excited.”
Pat Kelsey, at Louisville basketball media day
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