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Chris Best

CEO & Co-Founder, Substack

Search every verified Chris Best interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Chris Best, co-founder and CEO of Substack, has recently discussed the company's introduction of an AI-detection feature. The tool, developed in partnership with Pangram, allows readers to scan text on the platform to estimate whether it was generated by artificial intelligence. Best described the feature as a way to let users make their own choices about content, noting that some readers have strong reactions when they discover text they believed was human-written was actually AI-generated. He characterized the proliferation of AI-generated content as "content made by no one" that "pollutes the commons" and makes it harder to hear human voices, and described the extreme use of AI to mass-produce posts as a "denial of service attack against the public square." In interviews, Best has also discussed Substack's broader mission and his views on the future of media. He said the company was founded to create an "escape vehicle" for writers seeking independence from legacy publications and corporate advertisers, and that he believes the value of human perspective will increase as AI becomes more capable. He stated that Substack's approach is not to ban AI-generated content but to provide transparency, and he described the anti-slop stance as a pro-AI position, noting that AI company leaders themselves do not publish AI-generated content.

Recent appearances

Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“I have noticed that among discerning readers, AI prose is an acquired distaste. I think I feel this, and I think a lot of people feel this sort of sense of, oh man, this just leaves a bad taste in the mouth right now. Not for any philosophical reason. It's just like, okay, I've seen so much of this. It starts to cloy. It starts to jar. You know, I think the point of Substack is, as a writer, as a creator, you get to ”

“it is really interesting to me that you don't see Sam Altman or Dario or the Anthropic engineering blog posting Claude slop. You see them writing a lot of really thoughtful stuff. And I think that's illustrative that you don't have to be anti-AI. In fact, I think anti-slop is a pro-AI stance understood correctly in my mind.”

“the extreme version just being, hey, Claude, write a thousand viral posts, make no mistakes, off you go. And the problem with that is it's effectively like a denial of service attack against the public square”

“Business is doing well. We're growing. You know the way I think about this is I think as you get sort of plentiful you can get anything from the AI you can get any content. The value you you have infinite kind of like things that you can spend your time on the value of the trusted human connection and perspective goes up. And as long as we can have the platform reward that, as long as you feel like, hey, you know, li”

“The place I started with this, I've had the experience that I think a lot of us have had, not on Substack, but just on the internet in general. I'm scrolling the timeline. I'm reading stuff and sometimes I just have this experience where I'm reading something. Sometimes it's by someone that I think I know. Sometimes it's something and I have this kind of invasion of the body snatchers experience where you realize you”

“Free speech and freedom the the freedom of the press is foundational to a free society. Um and I think that's true you know, in the press, it's true on the internet. I'm very proud of the stance we've taken on that.”

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