Substack Co-Founder's view on AI Writing Tools, Twitter Ban and more
Substack Platform
Substack is a platform that lets writers, creators and independent publishers share their work with the world.
It allows users to build custom newsletters, manage subscribers, track analytics and set up paywalls. The service also enables individuals to monetize their content by allowing readers to sign up for paid subscriptions. Substack enables readers to stay informed on topics they care about, and gives writers a platform to share their work and get paid for it.
This can be an invaluable tool for anyone looking to become more independent, build a brand or get paid for their content. As Substack continues to grow in popularity, it is becoming an increasingly popular platform for both readers and creators. Now they introduced Notes
Twitter vs Substack contention
The Twitter-Substack rift began with Twitter censoring Substack on Twitter. As one might expect, Matt Taibbi, who up until recently was a fan of Elon was particularly vocal in his response to the news, penning an open letter to Musk deriding the policy as "censorship."
The dispute between Taibbi and Musk quickly escalated from there, culminating in a widely publicized exchange of heated barbs between the two. Though both parties have since tried to downplay the situation, it is clear that the professional relationship between them has been severely strained by this conflict.
Elon has responded and denies that the links to Substack were ever blocked:
Independent Journalists
It remains to be seen how the controversy will play out in the coming weeks and months, but one thing is certain: Elon Musk's decision to stifle Substack links has created a major rift between himself and many independent journalists—including Matt Taibbi. With both sides seemingly unwilling to back down, it appears that tensions between them will continue to simmer for the foreseeable future.
During Day One of Startup Grind Conference Hamish McKenzie shares his view on this situation. We also had the chance to catch up with him after his more public on stage interview.
What Hamish Had to Say about New Emerging AI Tools
When we asked: How new AI tools will help or hinder writers on the platform. He said:
"I think on Substack it (AI writing tools) will generally help. It will take a little while for people to figure out how.
"I am less excited about putting in a prompt and getting a beautiful piece of writing. But more excited about how ChatGPT or ChatGPT4 or whatever is going to be my editor, can it be my proofreader, can it suggest story ideas, can it link me to sources that take care of my citations, that kind of thing will have a very big effect." - Hamish McKenzie
Hamish was asked about Substack Recent Fundraise on Wefunder
At the time of this article they have raised 7+ million from readers, writers and supporters on the platfom via Wefunder.
"All the people that are betting on Substack, they believe that (Substack) has a chance of being something huge and I think they are right about Substack that it can become this financial successful company in the world, or it stays a small company, not so big, not so financially successful, we believe its the first one" - Hamish McKenzie
Hamish was asked about what transpired after they launched Notes (a competing product with Twitter)
"Twitter's response was nuclear, they throttled all of our Substack links they removed any mention of Substack from search. If you tweeted with the word Substack you were suppressed. It's lifted now, I don't know how long that is going to last and I don't know what the new reality will look like."
"And our position it sucks. The business competition we can understand, though I still have difficulties with this. I can understand why he (Elon Musk CEO of Twitter) might attack our company and we are willing to take risks, but if you're going to attack writers especially for a platform that supposedly stands for free speech I find it particularly hard to take."
"We just want this to be resolved as quickly as possible." - Hamish McKenzie
Hamish was asked about his stance on free speech
"We take a different approach, much akin to Wordpress which takes a stand on free speech, then there is Twitter and Facebook at the end of the spectrum that have different responsibilities, different burdens and different problems to control"
"We believe that we change the model and give readers and writers more agency"
A few moments later he was asked by Connie Loizos whether they did content moderation, to which he answered that:
"We have a small team (of content moderators) Our default is hands off, but of course we have to guard against things like incitement of violence, porn, spam, and we have content moderation policy and guidelines."
Twitter has since reversed it's decision by letting Substack links and content back onto it's platform.
Its also good to note that prior to running Substack, Hamish was a writer and journalist for a number of companies and publications including as Lead Writer for (Elon Musk owned) Tesla between 2014-2015.