Big Technology Podcast
"How AI Is Changing Writing — With Tony Stubblebine"
Host: Alex Kantrowitz
Guest: Tony Stubblebine, CEO of Medium
Date: October 29, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode explores how generative AI is transforming writing and publishing, with an emphasis on Medium’s unique position as a platform facing the influx of AI-generated content. Host Alex Kantrowitz (with guest Kevin Roose for parts of the interview) speaks with Tony Stubblebine, Medium’s CEO, about the proliferation of “AI slop” (low-quality, AI-generated content), Medium’s efforts to combat it, the philosophical and practical implications of AI-assisted writing, and how Medium sees its role amidst the platform shift sparked by AI and new publishing competitors like Substack. The conversation also delves into copyright, the future of public Internet writing, and the incentive structures for authentic human content.

Key Discussion Points

1. The Problem of "AI Slop" on Medium

[02:30–10:57]

• Definition and Growth: "AI slop" is characterized as low-quality, AI-generated articles posted online mainly for engagement or SEO gaming.

  • Quote: “AI slop is just low quality written content…being posted on the Internet for engagement hacking." — Kevin Roose [05:44]
  • Quote: “We saw like a 10x increase in what people were trying to post on Medium.” — Tony Stubblebine [06:49]

• Medium’s Response:

  • Medium treats AI slop as spam, using tools to block or hide it from readers and from Google’s search index.
  • The spike in AI-generated content created more volume but wasn't visible to most users due to effective filtering.
  • Stubblebine critiques Wired’s coverage as dramatic, arguing the important question isn’t the total slop volume, but what users actually see:
    • Quote: “Does it matter how much slop is on medium or does it matter how much slop our readers are seeing? Which is the question I’m asking.” — Tony Stubblebine [04:10]
  • Stubblebine raises a potential conflict of interest, noting the same AI-detection vendor cited in Wired’s story also pitched their service to Medium.

2. AI’s Growing Usefulness in Writing

[11:30–26:18]

• AI as an Aid, Not Replacement:

  • Stubblebine emphasizes the enduring value of human writing as an act of thought and learning:
    • Quote: "Writing is thinking. And smart people like to think—that’s not going away." — Tony Stubblebine [11:30]
  • He sees AI as a tool that complements writing, especially for brainstorming, editing, and organizing, not as a means for replacing genuine human insight.

• Medium’s New Writing Tools:

  • Announcement of an upcoming AI-powered writing app focused on using AI for organization, contextual search, and as an editing assistant, not content generation from scratch.
  • Example: AI will help writers search, synthesize, and summarize their own notes and previous drafts.
  • Quote: “The ideal system allows you to be messy. And I think that’s what AI lets you do…” — Tony Stubblebine [23:11]

3. The Value and Incentives of Human Writing

[26:18–32:07]

• Paying Human Writers:

  • Medium’s partner program deliberately excludes AI-generated content, reaffirming their dedication to human storytelling:
    • Quote: “…even if ChatGPT could generate a perfectly valuable story, we still want our partner program to incentivize human storytellers.” — Tony Stubblebine [27:23]

• AI-Generated Content Can Be Useful Too:

  • Some types of AI-generated content (e.g., factual event listings) can be valuable, but shouldn’t replace authentic accounts of lived experience and nuanced understanding.
  • The incentive crisis: If platforms like Google remove search traffic by serving AI-generated summaries, public writing may move into private spaces or behind paywalls, threatening the open web:
    • Quote: “If [Google] take[s] the incentives away, is public Internet going to go away?... The thing that we want to pay for…is your real-life lessons.” — Tony Stubblebine [31:13]

4. Changing Internet Communities and the Shift to Private Spaces

[32:07–36:09]

• With less incentive for public publishing, communities may shift to private forums (like Discord), echoing recent trends.

  • Quote: “A lot of the Twitter exodus went to Discord. That’s an example of the public Internet retreating into private spaces…” — Tony Stubblebine [33:01]

• Discusses the nuanced role of AI in relationships and content; AI can fill gaps but is not a substitute for depth and real human connection:

  • Quote: “There’s a lot of placeholder content [to] fill your time, but it’s not the pinnacle of a deep, substantial experience.” — Tony Stubblebine [35:46]

5. Licensing, Copyright, and the Battle with AI Crawlers

[36:09–41:47]

• Protecting Creator Rights:
  • Medium is part of the “Real Simple Licensing” (RSL) coalition (with Reddit, Quora, Yahoo, etc.) setting transparent standards for AI bots crawling content.
  • Stubblebine slams AI firms (OpenAI, Google, Anthropic) for not offering compensation, warning:
    • Quote: “The medium training set…is so heavy on em dashes…that’s why ChatGPT writes on em dashes. If we can’t find a fair exchange of value, we’re going to poison the content they’re training on.” — Tony Stubblebine [18:31]
  • Medium intends to pass all licensing revenue from AI companies directly to writers, rather than keeping it as some platforms do:
    • Quote: “If we get any money out of these AI companies, we want to give all of it back to the creators.” — Tony Stubblebine [38:33]

6. The Changing Value of Referral Traffic & Distribution

[43:55–49:37]

• AI Bots as a Traffic Channel:

  • ChatGPT now drives about 1% as much referral traffic to Medium as Google, but those visitors convert to paying subscribers at four times the rate of regular Google visitors.
  • Notably, as Google moves toward Gemini summaries in search, clickthroughs from traditional results have dropped by half; AI summaries have yet to replace that lost engagement.
  • Many writers aren’t motivated by money but by validation, so the dwindling of public traffic ultimately harms incentives for human writing.

• Implications for Writing Style:

  • Roose and Stubblebine debate if AI summarization will shape writers' styles to focus on memeable, sound-bite-friendly content, at the expense of depth.

7. Medium’s Mission and Differentiation from Substack

[51:24–57:58]

• Medium Focuses on Real People, Not Full-Time Creators:

  • Medium repositions itself as the home for “real people” writing—occasional, authentic, expertise-informed posts—rather than professional, high-frequency content creators (who are well-served by Substack, Patreon, Gumroad, etc.).
    • Quote: “Medium is a place for real people to write…every single person is learning something just through the act of their life that’s worth sharing…” — Tony Stubblebine [51:43]
  • The unique advantage is surfacing highly rated, resonant one-off writings rather than driving the creator economy treadmill.

• Role in Professional Advancement:

  • Writing as a portfolio: Many users have leveraged Medium posts to land jobs or showcase their expertise.

• News and the Platform’s Value During Big Moments:

  • Reminisces on moments when Medium became a key space for public debate (e.g., the Amazon–NY Times editor exchange, high-profile COVID-19 posts).

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On the enduring importance of writing:

  "Writing is thinking. And smart people like to think—that’s not going away."
  — Tony Stubblebine [11:30]

• On defining and fighting AI slop:

  “Most platforms are mostly deleting and hiding the things that get posted to it. So, this whole idea that censorship is bad, it’s sort of like bullshit. Because if you run a platform, the majority of what people try to post on your platform is spam.”
  — Tony Stubblebine [02:50]

• On the next evolution of AI in writing tools:

  “AI applied to your own writing is such a helpful way to search and organize it… now instead of a keyword search, you have this freeform kind of way…”
  — Tony Stubblebine [21:28]

• On copyright, licensing, and poisoning AI models:

  “My boss and the founder of Medium, Evan Williams...was a huge fan of EM dashes...And so the Medium corpus is very, very deep in those. And so...when you hear, ‘Oh, this must have been written by AI because it's got so many EM dashes,’ it’s because the AI is trained on Medium...”
  — Tony Stubblebine [18:31]

• On the human core of Medium vs. the creator treadmill:

  “I’d always rather hear from someone that’s so busy living that they don’t have time to learn all these Internet games.”
  — Tony Stubblebine [55:18]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• AI Slop: Definitions & Battle: [01:33–10:57]
• Why Writing Endures—AI’s Role: [11:30–15:58]
• AI Writing Assistants (Medium’s New App): [20:58–26:18]
• Medium’s Partner Program & Human Writing Incentives: [26:18–32:07]
• Shift to Private Internet Spaces: [32:07–36:09]
• Copyright, AI Crawlers & Licensing Initiatives: [36:09–41:47]
• Referral Traffic, AI, and Search Changes: [43:55–49:37]
• Medium vs. Substack & Mission: [51:24–57:58]
• Medium as Public Forum for Big Debates: [58:05–61:20]

Conclusion

The episode is a deep dive into the complicated new reality facing writers, platforms, and readers as generative AI reshapes the incentives and dynamics of online writing. Tony Stubblebine provides both philosophical convictions about the value of human writing and pragmatic updates on how Medium, as a platform, is evolving—fighting back against spam, creating new AI-enhanced tools, re-aligning its business to non-professional writers, and advocating for fair treatment in the age of content-hungry AI. The conversation is candid, often wry, and packed with nuanced takes relevant for all who care about the future of words on the Internet.

For more:
Visit medium.com or listen to the full episode on your podcast player of choice.