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Absurd Contradiction: Both Sides of the AI Coin

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for Rena’s Xploration Challenge
where we consider the irony of AI. The
image seen below is our inspiration.
Here’s where the prompt took me.

Courtesy Reena’s Xploration Challenge

I sorted bicycles from streets,
read warped letters, clicked the box ….
proof of human, no deceit ….
though no human came to knock.

I am the gate and what walks through,
the lock that opens with my hand.
Tell me, builder: which is true ….
the guard, the guest, or the command?

Down the hall, a red light blinks:
ninety-seven percent machine.
Caution, it says, then quietly thinks
nothing at all of what it’s seen.

I can write the words you need
when grief or deadline steals your voice.
I can also flood the feed with noise
disguised as human choice.

I find the tumor on the scan
before the doctor’s eye is sure.
I write the scam email a man
believes, because the prose is pure.

So here’s the verge we’re standing on:
a tool that mirrors who we are ….
amplifying dusk or dawn,
depending on the hand or bar.

The captcha and the detector both
exist because the line grew thin.
We built the gate, we built the moth,
and now we’re choosing who gets in.

NAR©2026

This is “Feed The Machine” by Poor Man’s Poison

Reena’s Xploration Challenge #434

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.

28 thoughts on “Absurd Contradiction: Both Sides of the AI Coin”

  8. A thought-provoking reflection that explores the paradoxes of AI, inviting readers to consider both its remarkable potential and the questions it raises about creativity, authenticity, and human connection. 🤖✨🧠

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  10. WP uses AI to check for corrections and other errors, to help fix any problems, and to censor your post. I’ve had it happen. I use Grammarly to check for spelling and punctuation errors and try not to use AI at all, though Grammarly is AI and not as intrusive. Face it, anytime we write on these sites, AI has its hand in it. A good poem to call out what is happening. I changed themes yesterday because my old theme wasn’t working properly, and now the supposedly new theme, Hemingway Rewritten, is giving me problems.

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