Picture this scene.
Office workers gather around the water fountain. Filling their cups. Drinking deeply. Walking to the bathroom. Everything they consume and expel cycles back through the same closed system. Filtered. Recycled. Round and round.
Nothing fresh enters.
That’s what bad AI does to human communication. We’re drinking our own processed output and calling it engagement.
The image is repulsive because the reality is repulsive. LinkedIn has become that closed water system. People generating comments on content they haven’t read. AI processing AI-generated posts. Conversation that looks real but tastes like recycled waste.
The Dostoevsky Test
Over the summer break, I spent 40 hours with The Brothers Karamazov. Dense. Challenging. Brilliant. Two thirds through, I posted on LinkedIn about the experience. Genuine enthusiasm for ideas consuming my thinking. I wrote:
OMG I wish more of my friends were reading The Brothers Karamazov at the same time. There is so much happening as we get to the final third of the 40-odd hours of pure, literary genius. Not only am I currently enjoying Ivan debating “the Devil” and showing him utter contempt, but just before that, Fyodor Dostoevsky straight out dissed Leo Tolstoy. I mean, he had one of his characters do a mic drop moment in a throwaway line. Ouch. It is like the original version of Kanye West vs Taylor Swift, but Kanye lets the analogy down due to lack of talent and class.
Within hours, a marketing professional commented. His words seemed perfect.
Steve,that final third of Karamazov hits real hard, Ivan meeting the Devil and that quiet Tolstoy nod from Dostoevsky feel so real haha. Who’s your favorite brother as it all builds?
As you can see, he referenced Ivan meeting the devil. Acknowledged the Tolstoy dig. Asked which brother was my favourite.
Except he hadn’t read the book.
The giveaway? He said the scene “hit real hard.” That’s AI phrasing. Shallow filler words generated to sound engaged.
A human who’d read the book would never focus on that scene. Minor moment. What follows immediately after dominates the entire final third and carries the real weight.
He couldn’t answer the human question: Do you think it was the devil or just Ivan’s imagination?
That question matters in context. Reveals whether you’ve actually engaged or just processed keywords.
I called it out publicly.
SS I’m really intrigued and annoyed. That comment tries to convey a sense that you have read this book.
However, I’m going to go out on a limb and say you haven’t.
This is because a human who has read it would not say it hit “real hard”. That is just a shallow, meaningless comment – the slop that AI tools churn out as they strive to embellish content from nothing.
Furthermore, a reader would know the “devil” scene is minor compared to the most profound story element that follows immediately after that and then dominates the final third of the book. What am I referring to? AI will know.
This is a wasted outreach opportunity in LinkedIn because it’s just plastic noise.
There’s too much of this disingenuous use of AI to strike up conversation here. It’s like a collection of talking dolls just droning on with programmed chatter.
Here’s the human question you would have asked if you’d read the book: do you think it was the devil or just his imagination?
That’s a poignant question in this context because I know that wasn’t you writing here as yourself – it was generative AI at its most vacuous.
PS This was a handwritten comment 🙂
He deleted his comment and disappeared.
That’s recycled water. Processed output pretending to be fresh thought.
Where This Shows Up
LinkedIn has become a urinal for plastic content. My most popular LInkedIn article, How To HumbleBrag On LInkedIn Like A Pro, highlights the problem of childish human vanity dressed up on work clothes but this latest, plastic AI issue dwarfs that, in my “humble” opinion.
People churning out AI-written comments on posts they haven’t read. Engagement that’s technically correct but spiritually vacant. Talking dolls droning programmed chatter.
A client recently asked Perplexity to audit his website. The output was spectacular nonsense. I don’t think the AI even visited the actual site. It just fabricated plausible-sounding analysis.
Another person I know writes books almost entirely with AI tools. Every few pages, something vaguely human appears. The rest follows predictable patterns because AI doesn’t create new things. It runs mathematics on probability.
Given what you’ve said so far, the most likely next word is this. And this. And this.
Why This Matters for Your Business
Your potential customers can tell.
Maybe not consciously. But they feel the difference between someone who’s actually thinking and someone who’s automated their presence.
When you use AI to fake engagement, you’re telling people your attention isn’t worth their content. You’re signalling that conversation with them isn’t valuable enough to warrant actual thought.
As my AI assistant, Claude, notes: “that’s not a relationship, that’s spam with better grammar.”
Where AI Belongs
AI amplifies human thinking when used properly. You’ve written 80% of something. Put real thought in. Established your voice and perspective. AI helps finish, polish, extend what you’ve started.
The problem comes when you point AI at someone’s content and ask it to generate engagement. You haven’t read their work. You haven’t thought about it. You’re manufacturing the appearance of connection.
The difference is effort and authenticity.
Our Strategic Clarity Sessions have been designed to help distill the essence of your customers’ issues and concerns and the authentic nature of your communication so that your core material can be amplified by AI soundly.
What Fresh Water Looks Like
Communicate with your audience as authentically as possible. Rough edges and all.
You don’t need perfect prose. You need genuine response. Your actual thinking. The connections you make. The questions that occur to you.
Write the email explaining your service in your own words. Record the video where you stumble over a phrase. Draft the post that captures what you’re actually wrestling with this week.
When you respond to someone’s work, respond because you actually engaged with it. Ask questions that reveal you understood what they were saying. Share observations from your own experience that connect to theirs.
Stop trying to sound polished when what people need is honest.
The businesses building real relationships in 2026 aren’t the ones with the most automated outreach. They’re the ones showing up with genuine thought, even when it’s rough around the edges.
Your competitors are teaching your audience that everything is just noise. We can break through by actually thinking.
Get on with your business. Communicate authentically. Don’t be afraid of imperfection.
Fresh mains water beats recycled waste every time.
Think first. Let AI amplify second. Never reverse that order.