The heresy of Hank Green
Thou shalt not use ChatGPT.
Hank Green has committed the internet’s newest unforgivable sin: admitting to using AI.
The trouble began when Green, a prolific science educator and communicator with a wildly popular YouTube channel, used the somewhat awkward canned phrase “I appreciate the pushback” in a solo monologue segment of a video.
For frequent users of ChatGPT — or unwilling recipients of AI-generated emails — this was a tell. Many of Green’s fans immediately accused him of using AI to write his script, which Green denied. But he did admit that he’d used ChatGPT to help research the episode. Many of his fans treated this as though he’d admitted to blending baby seals to make his morning smoothie:
Look at the language here: Green is a sellout with “no standards.” He’s a “fraud” whose “credibility is in the trash.” It’s “disappointing” and “incredibly scary.” Make it make sense!
Green subsequently posted a pseudo-apology on Reddit in which he said he was “mortified” to have disappointed people. He admitted that he had been relying too heavily on AI as a research aid while maintaining that he had not used AI to write his script. But he added that he was getting an unhealthy level of dopamine from using LLMs — and essentially soft-canceled himself by promising to pause several projects and reduce his video output in the future.
Some people continue to suspect that Green used ChatGPT for more than just research. His phrasing, after all, seemed odd. Pangram flags the scripted portion of Green’s video as 86% AI-generated, and Green certainly has an incentive to lie if he did write with AI. On the other hand, Pangram can sometimes struggle with false positives. And Green’s reputation for honesty should matter here —he’s built up quite a bit of goodwill over nearly two decades of producing high-quality educational content.
Perhaps controversially, I’d like to argue that whether or not Green used AI is one of the least important things about this entire episode. What’s far more interesting is how a fan base built on a love of science began conducting itself like a dogmatic religious sect, eager to police the boundaries of predetermined good and evil.
Believe science
Hank Green’s entire public persona is built around endless curiosity, optimism, and enthusiasm for science. He frequently highlights new scientific discoveries. But AI itself is one of the greatest technical advances of our lifetimes. In addition to being incredibly impressive in its own right, it’s contributing to breakthroughs in science and math.
So why are Green’s science-loving fans so incensed that he would use AI for research?
To understand the outrage, you first need to realize that for many people “science” functions as a sort of new religion. And this new religion’s adherents have decided that AI technology does not count as science. They’ve decided AI is evil to its core.
There have been many attempts throughout history to turn science and reason into full-fledged belief systems. The French Revolution produced the Cult of Reason, an atheistic substitute for Christianity complete with repurposed ceremonies and churches. In the 19th century, Auguste Comte proposed a Religion of Humanity meant to fulfill the social and cultural roles of organized religion but with positivist reason in place of supernatural beliefs.
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