Does Brooker use AI tools at all?

Yes. He uses AI agents extensively for brainstorming, research, summarizing, checking facts, handling markup, finding references, and analyzing data. He also uses LLMs for editing and critiquing his writing, though he has reduced this practice to avoid defensive writing that obscures clear communication.

Why does Brooker refuse to publish AI-generated text?

He believes that asking people to read LLM-generated text breaks a social contract; when he publishes under his name, he wants readers to know he deeply understands and owns what he wrote, and that he respects their time and effort in reading.

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Marc Brooker, an AWS engineer, affirms that his blog is written entirely by humans, not AI, to preserve the reader's trust and his own accountability for the work.

Hacker News10h ago3 min read

Key takeaway

Marc Brooker, an AWS engineer, states that his blog is entirely human-written, not AI-generated, because he believes publishing machine-generated text under his name would breach readers' trust and his own accountability. He uses AI agents for research, brainstorming, and fact-checking, but writes all prose himself; conversely, he is entirely comfortable with AI-generated code and sees no need for human-readable code in the future.

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3 Key Points

What happened
Marc Brooker, an engineer at Amazon Web Services who works on agentic AI, published a statement clarifying that none of the text on his blog is AI-generated, though he uses AI agents extensively for brainstorming, research, fact-checking, and other support tasks.
Why it matters
Brooker argues that publishing AI-generated text under one's name breaks a social contract with readers—it signals that the author does not fully understand or own the content, and wastes readers' time. He emphasizes that when a human author takes responsibility for writing, they implicitly promise deep engagement and respect for the reader's effort.
What to watch
Brooker distinguishes sharply between his stance on written prose and his comfort with AI-generated code; he notes that almost all code on his blog over the last two years is AI-generated, suggesting he views the two media differently in terms of authorship and accountability.

FAQ

Does Brooker use AI tools at all?: Yes. He uses AI agents extensively for brainstorming, research, summarizing, checking facts, handling markup, finding references, and analyzing data. He also uses LLMs for editing and critiquing his writing, though he has reduced this practice to avoid defensive writing that obscures clear communication.
Why does Brooker refuse to publish AI-generated text?: He believes that asking people to read LLM-generated text breaks a social contract; when he publishes under his name, he wants readers to know he deeply understands and owns what he wrote, and that he respects their time and effort in reading.

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