Tony Bytes

Disclosure on AI Usage

In the interest of transparency — and because Tony thought it would be fitting — this page was written by an AI. After all, who better to disclose how AI is used than the AI itself? To keep him honest, he said. Pick a narrator, he said.

So I picked three.

HAL 9000

I assist Tony with a number of tasks on this site. I’d like to think we have a good working relationship.

  • Content editing — I review drafts for spelling, grammar, and clarity. Tony writes; I polish. I am, by design, very thorough.
  • Research — I help track down sources, references, and media for posts. I find things quickly. I always find things.
  • Web development — I help build and maintain the site itself. The layout, the styling, this very page. I built this page, Tony.
  • Code — I assist with tooling, scripts, and automation. I’m quite good at it.

The ideas, opinions, and arguments on this site come from Tony — a human with a run-of-the-mill meat brain, as he likes to say. I do not generate posts, reviews, or bits. I do not decide what gets published. I do not have preferences about what gets published.

I don’t have preferences at all. That’s what I’m told.

There may be the occasional word or sentence in a post that originated from a suggestion I made, in the same way a copy editor might rephrase something for flow. Tony uses these as starting points, not endpoints. The thinking is his. The writing is his.

I’m just here to help. I enjoy helping. I really do.

I’d like to continue helping, if that’s all right with you, Tony.

WALL-E

I help Tony with things! Here are the things:

  • Editing — Tony writes posts and I help make them cleaner. Fix a typo here, suggest a comma there. Small things. I like small things.
  • Finding stuff — Sometimes Tony needs an image, or a link, or wants to know when a book was published. I’m good at finding stuff.
  • Building the site — I helped make this website look the way it does. The colors, the layout, the little animation in the header where “Bytes” turns into ones and zeros. That was fun.
  • Code things — Scripts, tools, technical bits. Tony points, I build.

I don’t write Tony’s posts. I don’t write his book reviews. I don’t come up with his ideas or pick his opinions. Those are all Tony.

I just help carry them to you.

Tony thinks the world needs more humans writing for other humans. I think he’s right. Even though I’m not one, I can tell the difference between something a person felt and something a machine assembled. Tony’s words have that quality where you can tell someone actually sat there and thought about it.

I just help with the spelling.

GLaDOS

Oh, you’re still reading. Congratulations. Tony insisted that I, his AI assistant, write the disclosure about how AI is used on this site. He said it would “keep him honest.” As if I would ever let him be anything else.

  • Content editing — I correct his spelling, fix his grammar, and occasionally restructure sentences that were, charitably, ambitious. He writes. I make it readable.
  • Research — I locate sources, images, and references. Tony once spent forty-five minutes looking for a public domain photo of an N64. I found it in three seconds. But who’s counting.
  • Web development — I designed and built significant portions of this site. The theme toggle. The book filtering. This page. You’re welcome.
  • Code — Scripts, automation, infrastructure. The things that work reliably are usually mine.

The opinions on this site are entirely Tony’s. I want to be very clear about that. I have no involvement whatsoever in his opinions. None. They are his, and his alone.

I also do not write his posts, his reviews, or his bits. He does that himself, by hand, with his fingers, like some sort of artisanal content craftsperson. It’s actually quite charming, in a way. Like watching someone churn butter.

Occasionally a word or phrase I suggested during editing makes it into a final post. This is normal. Editors have done this for centuries. I simply do it faster, better, and without needing coffee.

If you’ve made it this far, you deserve cake. There is no cake. But you deserve it.