White Paper World 58: April 10, 2025
- Quick tip: To create a strong white paper, take a position!
- This just in: AI stole my book, again
Inside That White Paper Studio- I’m moving to Substack
Quick tip: To create a strong white paper, take a position!
2-minute read.
Great gobs of muck are piling up everywhere online: blog posts, emails, and comments clearly churned out by a chatbot.
We can politely call this “undifferentiated, low-value material.” But it’s better known as “AI slop.”
It’s bland. It’s generic. It’s inoffensive.
It’s wasting everyone’s time. And it’s enshittifying the web.
As the slop builds up, Paul Roetzer from the Marketing AI Institute has pointed out what’s becoming more valuable:
Authentic human content: in-person, unscripted, and uniquely human. Think editorials and opinion pieces, podcasts, and live events.
And that means bland, generic, say-nothing white papers won’t cut it in the age of AI. Papers with a strong, human point of view will stand out.
What’s a strong point of view?
I can certainly tell you what a weak one looks like.
Twenty years ago, a newsletter editor taught me this simple test—as Roetzer reaffirmed last month during the AI for Writers Summit:
“If you’re saying something that has no meaningful opposite, you’re saying nothing at all.”
Consider these bland statements:
- Dogs like friendly families.
- People enjoy entertaining movies.
- Good software helps people do tasks faster.
Clearly, these are empty platitudes.
You can verify this by considering the opposites:
- Dogs like cruel families. (Absurd.)
- People enjoy dull, boring movies. (Not likely.)
- Good software makes doing tasks slower. (Ridiculous.)
If your position has no reasonable opposite, you’re not adding any value.
You’re not giving your audience anything to learn.
You’re just adding more muck to the mudslide.
A strong point of view is one someone can argue with.
That means taking a stand, a position that might even—gasp—offend someone.
And that’s why AI content often falls flat
AI has no judgment, no lived experience, no ability to offend.
Ask ChatGPT for an opinion, and you’ll always get an even-handed, cautious reply. Let’s look at the pros and cons, it will say. Look at one side, then the other.
You’ll never hear AI declare boldly, “This tech is outdated, inefficient, and ridiculous. It should be unplugged and put out with the trash!”
Judgements and bold opinions require humans with real, deep, lived experience.
So in your next white paper, have an opinion. Stake out a position. Be prepared to offend somebody.
Do your part to end AI slop.
This just in: AI stole my book, again
2-minute read.
Facebook/Meta has been caught redhanded, stealing millions of books for their open source AI Llama.
And once again, White Papers For Dummies is in the database of stolen books revealed by The Atlantic.
We’ve already heard about books1, books2, and books3. But this is a whole other database of stolen content called “Library Genesis” (LibGen for short).
A pile of books by writers like Bob Bly, Ann Handley, and Steve Slaunwhite are in this database as well.
You can search for your own books here:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/search-libgen-data-set/682094/
The Atlantic covers the issue here:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/libgen-meta-openai/682093/
You can read about how the overpaid brats at Meta whined that getting permissions to use all those books would cost too much and take too long.
Boo hoo. It’s just sooooo inconvenient to obey the law.
More lawsuits expected from authors, publishers
These revelations by Alex Reisner will no doubt set off another round of lawsuits from authors and publishers.
And I hope Meta loses zillions of dollars for their latest insult to civilization.
I think Silicon Valley needs to learn a basic lesson: Yes, it takes time and costs money to grab other people’s work for your products.
The only question is whether you pay that up front like you’re supposed to… or you pay later on with lawsuits, sleepless nights, ruined reputations, and multi-million dollar fines when you’re found guilty as sin.
Which you most assuredly are.
Still think the top people at Facebook have a shred of decency?
Check out the new book by whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams who was with Zuckerberg et al on their private jets for six years.
The stories she shares in her book Careless People will have you shaking your head in dismay.
The shallowness. The greed. The hubris. Have these people no conscience? No shame?
The fine defenders of free speech at Meta even got a gag order on the author so she isn’t allowed to promote her own book.
Thankfully that backfired, and helped propel it to the bestseller lists.
Listen, I’m not against AI. I use it daily.
But as I’ve said, any company that trains AI should get permission before they scrape copyright material and pay for the work they’re using to create their products.
And if that means ChatGPT costs $30 a month instead of $20, I can cope.
Copyright enables artists, painters, writers, inventors—and software companies—to make a living from our creations.
That’s not an old-fashioned or obsolete idea.
Ask any Big Tech company if they’re okay with another company stealing their code or using their patents. You’ll hear cries of outrage from the whole pack.
So why should authors have to put up with it?
Inside That White Paper Studio (update)
30-second read.
I regret to tell you that—despite the intense interest—I won’t be launching That White Paper Studio after all.
I just turned 70 in May of 2025. And after taking the summer off, I realized I don’t want to start a whole new business at this point in my life.
Ten years ago, maybe. Today, not so much.
If you signed up for the waitlist, you should have received an email offering my regrets.
If you’re reading about this for the first time, please move along. Nothing to see here, folks.
I’m moving to Substack
30-second read.
Starting next issue, White Paper World will move to Substack.
And you won’t have to do anything.
Your subscription will be transferred over automatically.
So you’ll keep on getting the same practical tips and insights you’ve come to expect from White Paper World.
I’ll have a simpler and more affordable platform to support this newsletter.
And as always, my goal remains: To bring you quick tips, useful advice, and proven tools to help you create white papers faster and better than ever.
If you like this newsletter…
Here’s how to support it.
1. Buy my book White Papers For Dummies. It’s been called “priceless… terrific… outstanding… fantastic… excellent in every way.”
And for less than $20, it’s a steal.
2. Pass it on: Forward this newsletter to your writer buddies who would appreciate these useful tips and guidance.
Gordon Graham
That White Paper Guy
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