I can attest this predates AI.
The thing is I’m not terribly confident most people have taste for AI to corrupt. I consistently see books with an average 4.5 star rating that I thought were absolute trash. I don’t think most people know shit from good.
Is that an elitist idea? Sort of? I’m a writer. I’ve spent my life reading amazing books and meditating on how nothing I write will ever come close. I think there are some objective factors that make good writing. They are not universal, but if you have a shit manuscript you can get pretty far just by improving on the common points.
There are writers who know what they’re doing but most of them aren’t selling $2.99 e-books on Kindle Unlimited. MOST. I have/had two friends who co-wrote on Vella for a while and published the complete books on KU. They were both great writers. (One has passed away and I don’t know what verb tense to use when describing both of them, sorry.)
Is it elitist to want to read good books?
I’m just thinking of the lady who said that it was ableist to expect writers to read books. The whole thing can get quite ridiculous. Without even involving AI.