Welcome to Issue 186 of Total Annarchy, a fortnightly newsletter by me, Ann Handley, with a focus on writing, marketing, living your best life. Was this email forwarded to you? You can subscribe here.

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Hello, Brightness.

It's been a glooooooorious week—one of those rare times in New England when the deep blue sky is cloudless and I take joyful photos of the spring flowers pushing up recklessly out of the traumatized ground.

I just learned that what I thought was a common daffodil is called Poet's Narcissus—it's named from Greek mythology—and how delightful is the poet part?* (More on this below.)

So in that spirit, today let's open windows and aerate a few of your latest questions—including one provocative one that I thought about not answering, tbh.

Welcome to this edition of FAQs: Frequently Ann-swered Questions.

(Usual fine print: questions have been trimmed, fluffed, and anonymized to protect both your dignity and my inbox.)

* * *

Q: You've criticized Meta and others for using pirated material to train AI models—but you also use AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT. Isn't that contradictory? These companies have operated this way for a while now—so what changed?

You're still using their tools, where exactly do you draw the line? —Vlad and Jason

A: Vlad and Jason aren't a couple. (I don't think.) They asked me separately; I combined their two questions.

It's a fair question. Umm, questions. Here's where I stand.

Yes, I use AI tools. (I wrote how here.)

And yes, I'm critical of how some of them were built—especially now that we know how extensively companies like Meta scraped pirated libraries instead of pursuing legitimate licensing and paying writers actual doubloons. (I wrote about the heist here.)

That's the line for me. The problem isn't that AI exists or that it learns from human work. The problem is how it was trained—without consent, without compensation, without transparency. That's not innovation; that's appropriation at scale.

Was I using some of these tools before fully understanding their provenance? Yes—like many of us. You can see how the comments on my LinkedIn post went absolutely bananas.

Once you know better, you do better. So now I advocate for what should have been table stakes from the start:

Consent. Compensation. Clarity.

I don't believe that using a tool and questioning how it works are mutually exclusive.

I'd argue we should both understand these tools and experiment with them thoughtfully—to discover both their potential benefits *AND* limitations. Especially now—as they slide into our daily lives.

These systems are already here, already shaping how we work and write, how we learn and live. So the real question is: How do we engage with them critically, consciously, and creatively? (Three more Cs.)

And without benefit of clairvoyance and the muse Calliope in our cosmos? (Greek myth vibes.)

So no, I don't boycott AI. But I choose where, when, and how to use it—and just as importantly, how to talk about it.

I'm transparent about what's AI-assisted. I ask where the material comes from. I push for attribution and ethical sourcing. That's my version of voting with both my wallet and my words.

I'm here to help shape a future that serves not just tech platforms... but the people who make things worth reading.

Thanks for asking the kind of question that keeps the conversation honest.

Q: AI is dumpster-diving! Here's what I mean: Our museum tours earn great reviews—4 to 5 stars, year after year. But now AI search results dig up every random complaint ever made, no matter how old or off-base. How do we fight back and make sure the real story gets through? I mean, really... what's a girl to do? —Janet

A: Augie (my dog who loves shopping) says his favorite store has this same problem: AI-driven search is reshaping how reputations are built, and (in some cases) dumpster-diving, surfacing old, out-of-context, fringe, or wacky comments—usually unattributed.

Some thoughts (in no particular order):

You can't control what's already out there, but you can guide what people (and AI) find next. Newer signals will eventually outweigh older noise. That means: asking recent guests to leave reviews—not just on Tripadvisor or Yelp, but across multiple platforms (especially Google). AI often prioritizes recency.

Claim and optimize the heck out of every profile so they're as strong as Hercules. Google Business Profile. Tripadvisor. Yelp. Facebook. Look good? Fresh? Active? Connected to your site? Up-to-date profiles help AI know where to "anchor" the real story.

Answer the chuckleheads who hate you (briefly, professionally). We're sorry you had this experience in 2017. Here's how we've improved since. This shows both AI and people that the info is old and that you've evolved (like many of us have since 2017).

Create that content! Blog posts. FAQs. Short articles on your site. Social posts (more on that when we proceed to the next bullet...!) Your goal is to create a fresh, accurate anchor point for AI search instead of a steaming pot of Random Review Stew.

Like what? Like a short video of "What People Actually Say About Our Tours" with a quick montage of recent 4- and 5-star reviews: Screenshots? Spoken? Your call. Caption it something like: AI search pulling weird stuff? Here's what real people say after they visit us.

More social specifics. I talked last time about how Perplexity surfaced TikTok wedding videos for me.

YouTube Shorts are sometimes picked up by AI. Instagram Reels tend to not be, because Meta has trapped them inside its platform like a three-headed dog. (At least for now.) But of course... people are still searching there directly.

And finally...

Have fun with it. Acknowledge the AI issue with humor and transparency. Maybe: "The Oldest (and Weirdest) Review We've Ever Gotten." Read or re-enact a bizarre, outdated, or completely off-base review and lightly poke fun at it: "AI pulled this gem from 2011. We've changed a bit since then."

It might disarm criticism, make your audience laugh, and signal that you are the current, reliable narrator of your own story.

And really, isn't all you want?

* * *

*🌼 The Poet's Narcissus is thought to be the original flower from the myth of Narcissus—the self-involved young influencer who, in a time before history, fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water and drowned. 

"You wanna be admired?" the Greek gods chorused. "Fine. You're a flower."

A world away, I take a picture of Narcissus to share with you. And I imagine how much Narcissus himself would be delighted by that.

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DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

What being an author is like.

(h/t Jay Acunzo)

Thanks for reading this far.

Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

🫡 See you May 18!

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