When My Daughter Slandered Spider-Man
(And What It Taught Me About AI Writing)
My Medium friends can read this over there as well.
I’ll never forget this one.
When my daughter was about six, I was sitting with her, reading a book about the solar system my friend had given me for my birthday earlier in the year.
He’s got a dry sense of humour, so inside the cover he’d scribbled: “Happy Birthday, you arsehole.”
I laughed as I read it out loud again, forgetting my company.
Naturally, my daughter leaned over and asked:
“Daddy, what does that mean?”
Trying to play it down, I shrugged and said, “It just means bum.”
She looked confused but we moved on.
Later that day we took her to a birthday party for her friend at the local village hall - complete with a Spider-Man impersonator who would do a show in front of the rows of seated kids.
It was his first day on the job.
Later on, while my wife and I were chatting with friends by the bouncy castle outside, an ashen-faced mother appeared:
“Is your daughter Maryann?”
We nodded.
“Well…she just called Spider-Man an arsehole.”
Horrified - but also secretly stifling a laugh - we realised she'd taken this funny new word she learnt and just run with it.
She didn’t grasp the nuance, tone, or context - and definitely not the whole meaning.
We left slightly in disgrace feeling like dreadful parents - without a party bag.
When looking back I always chuckle, and imagine the poor guy at home later that day - still in the Spidey Suit without the mask on - with three fingers of whisky and a consolidatory cigarette.
"You said this would be a new start!" he says to his wife.
"Never mind dear," she replies, "perhaps the next one will go better? I'm sure she didn't mean it - you were doing so well!"
It's funny yes, but the more serious angle to all this - is that it reveals the exact problem with AI writing.
Why AI Can’t Grasp Meaning (Like Humans Do)
The problem is that AI merely stitches words together without understanding them.
It can produce sentences that are technically correct - but meaning, tone, and nuance escape it.
That’s why ChatGPT quite often spits out wooden replies, awkward phrasing, or advice that feels “off.”
Just like my daughter repeating a word she didn’t fully understand, AI parrots language without grasping the weight behind it.
When words lose nuance, writing (and humanity) loses its soul.
And if there’s one thing we can’t afford to lose anymore of in this polarised world, it’s nuance.
The Human Edge in Writing
Of course, this matters for us writers - for you - because if you’re building a newsletter-powered side hustle or full-time writing business, your edge isn’t speed or volume.
AI can do that better than any of us.
Your edge is meaning and human connection. It's our stories and lived experience.
That’s why the most effective workflow looks like this:
Use AI for research and outlining → let it gather, summarise, and structure
Use AI for repurposing → turning a long-form piece into shorter snippets
But always do the final writing and editing yourself → because only you know what you really mean and how it should feel
This way you get the efficiency of AI without losing the humanity of your words.
Your Spider-Man Moment
Here’s the Spidey Sense: if you let AI handle all the writing, you’ll end up with the same problem my daughter had with Spider-Man.
The words will be there, but the meaning will be wrong.
And your audience will notice this hollowness and lack of authenticity - and this in turn will erode their trust in you as a writer.
So treat AI as your assistant, not your ghostwriter.
Let it do the heavy lifting based on your ideas and opinions, but keep the final say.
Because your voice, your nuance, and your context - that’s what makes the difference between “generic content” and writing that builds a business.