Why I Abruptly Stopped Using Ulysses After Twelve Years
As of this weekend I have switched away from Ulysses, a writing app I have used for over twelve years. It’s worth taking a moment to explain why.
Since the release of “Ulysses III” back in April 2013, I have used this lovely app to draft everything from cover letters to songs about my cats. I will be cancelling my “Migration Offer” subscription in August. How did it come to this?
Occasionally I read Michael J. Tsai’s blog, and last week I spotted a post from Ulysses co-founder Max Seelemann extolling the virtues of Claude and Cursor in a roundup of pro-generative AI sentiments. It seemed Max had so casually and completely drunk the AI “Kool-Aid” as to provoke grave concern.
Generative AI is obviously a hot topic, and many developers feel they must rush to catch the train before it leaves the station. This frenetic reaction to what is essentially snake oil salesmanship has needlessly laundered the credibility of hucksters and liars, not to mention the billionaires whose fiery contempt for labor has kept the generative AI bonfire burning bright.
I don’t know Max, and I don’t mean to cast aspersions. But here’s the rub:
Ulysses is a tool specifically developed for and marketed to writers.
Do you know what generative AI is doing to writers?[1][2][3] How about artists?[4]
If generative AI proponents have their way, will Ulysses have a customer base in the future? Who will be able to pay for Ulysses if the AI companies destroy the market for professional writing? Do the Ulysses developers not see that their customers’ fight for their livelihoods is also their fight?
In this sense, I see generative AI as neither trend nor inevitability, but instead:
I think we should shed the idea that AI is a technological artifact with political features and recognize it as a political artifact through and through. AI is an ideological project to shift authority and autonomy away from individuals, towards centralized structures of power.
– Ali Alkhatib, Defining AI. 06 December 2024.
Thus, with all these real world stakes in mind, I feel the postings I’ve seen from Max demonstrate a fundamental lack of solidarity with the very customers that Ulysses aims to serve. This is utterly disappointing and chilling to the extent that I can no longer use Ulysses myself; nor can I recommend it to friends and contacts. It’s a very sad day.
Understanding the AI Class Action Lawsuits – The Authors Guild. 6 May, 2025. ↩︎
Group of high-profile authors sue Microsoft over use of their books in AI training – The Guardian. 26 June 2025. ↩︎
Authors petition publishers to curtail their use of AI – NPR News. 28 June 2025. ↩︎
A list going viral reveals famous artists whose work was used to train AI generator – NBC News. 4 January 2024. ↩︎