I used AI to help me understand the central question I want to write about. There are so many ways I could write about the events as a cancer survivor, an invest survivor, a woman who traveled the world with a family of four, etc. how to shape a long an interesting life that works help someone else who is struggling with a similar issue. I money story and got a helpful outline for how I might write it that would find an audience. I stopped there. All the wrong, scene choices, development will be mine. The AI suggestions will help me know what doesn’t belong.
Thanks for sharing how you're using AI, Betsy. Getting it to help you see outside the box is a great way to open up your story and claim what you'd like to do with it.
As long as AI helps us think, AI is of great help.
If AI prevents us to think, to research, to make up our own mind, then, it is not.
Hi, I brainstorm with AI. I copy a sentence from my writing, check it outside of my writing platform with one or two AI if it makes sense grammatically or if I can get away with it in my poetry, as I am French.
I really like the positive feedback or discovering that I am saying something totally different from what I though in French I was writing in English. Lots of fun. Interesting conversations. I'd like to have my English friends at my side to check my work, and do this work with me but, they have their own things to do. I like to think that AI is a university supervisor so knowledgeable in everything. I had a few friends like that when I was studying. Very rare actually. I would have to check with hundreds of people for the information I need. I like it that AI, more and more, is citing their references, so I can check further.
I am using an edit service for all levels of my drafts, but when it comes to correct the last draft, and to add more poetry, I need fast answers. Before AI, I would check the internet dictionaries and grammar sites before using or changing my sentence. it was very slow and was taking my focus away. That's for my books. For my blogs, I check my whole text with AI before publishing, to see their suggestions. I usually like my own sentences, I find theirs a little too professional cliché, they stay with the reader while with AI, we might get a perfection that does not connect necessarily. But AIs always help me with the grammar. Like this text, is not corrected by AI. It is long, not many people will read it because of that, I'm gonna try Claude to see if you like the next one better:
my question: hi, could you make this text easily understandable and readable for everyone:
response:
Here's a clearer version: (Why I use AI for my writing)
I'm a French poet writing in English, and AI has become my brainstorming partner. I'll copy a sentence from my work and check it with one or two AIs—does this make grammatical sense? Can I bend the rules for poetry?
I love discovering when I've accidentally said something completely different from what I intended. It's fun, and the conversations are genuinely interesting.
Ideally, I'd have English-speaking friends reviewing my work alongside me, but they have their own lives. AI fills that gap—like having a university supervisor who knows a little about everything. I knew a few people like that when I was studying, but they're rare. Otherwise, I'd need to consult dozens of sources for the same information.
I appreciate that AI now cites references, so I can dig deeper when I want to.
I use an editing service throughout my drafts, but for final polishes—adding more poetry, making quick decisions—I need fast answers. Before AI, I'd scroll through dictionaries and grammar sites. It was slow and broke my focus.
For my books, AI helps at the finishing stage. For my blogs, I run the whole text through AI before publishing to see suggestions. Usually I prefer my own sentences—AI suggestions can feel too polished, too professional. They stay with the reader in a generic way, while my imperfect lines might actually connect better. But AI always catches my grammar mistakes.
I trimmed repetition, broke it into shorter paragraphs, and kept your voice and meaning intact. Let me know if you'd like it even shorter or in a different style.
thank you
You're welcome!
The sentence: “For my books, AI helps at the finishing stage” is not true. I would have to revise my text to make sure I do not give that impression. And the intention of my text is "How I use AI" not just "why"
I know, the AI version looks so much clearer. I would for instance make sure I start my text by saying that I'm French. And create paragraphs. So I cheated, and added space between sentences in what you see above, while, originally, it was just a lump quick answer.
But again... as for clear perfection, I have a story.
I usually write research and project proposals in a clear, simple way, coming from experience and testimonies that have an impact and sometimes change the culture of the funders (I think).
Once, I worked with an exceptional PHD professor who was so knowledgeable, so amazingly English, so brilliant. So brilliant. We changed my text, for instance the title from 4 words became a 30-word title. I was so amazed. Floating in a cloud of thousands of brilliant words.
When we did not receive any news of acceptance or rejection from the funder, I called them and talked to someone who told me that, as soon as she saw the title of our proposal, she put everything in the garbage. A million dollars in the garbage, which could have changed the world... And I understood.
I had let myself be impressed by someone who had no idea what the heart of the project and of the people involved was about, some intellectual who really wants to know but is totally disconnected from reality, but who could write perfectly about it. I failed to be the bridge I was supposed to be between academy and community. I learned, but again... one million dollars!!! We'll get it next time. We learned. Didn't we?
But then, what if it is an AI entity who evaluates the proposals? What would we do to get that million?
conclusion:
As long as AI helps us think, AI is of great help.
If AI prevents us to think, to research, to make up our own mind, then, it is not.
But again... where's the money? What would we do to get it?
Could we make sure we don’t sacrifice the heart of our intentions and of the people involved?
note:
because I sort of knew not many people would make it to the end of this comment, I copied and pasted part of my conclusion at the beginning. So you can do your own thinking.
Hi Chantal, thank you for sharing your process, and for sharing your conclusion at both the beginning and the end. It's spot on: "As long as AI helps us think, AI is of great help.
If AI prevents us to think, to research, to make up our own mind, then, it is not." The big question we all want to ask, and keep asking, is how will we know when it's truly assisting us? I don't have any answers. It's just a question I'm meditating on.
Thanks, Lisa. Two months ago, I flew back to Maryland to visit a dear friend. He is a marvelous 92-year-old retired physician who has developed significant health issues, including several strokes and macular degeneration, so he can no longer read. He is also a non-fiction writer (44 books) and had hoped to finish his autobiography and a book titled "The Perils of the Spiritual Path". I offered to help — he accepted. I flew home--hopeful. But then, I wondered, how can I do this? I am not a professional editor, and the logistics are significant. I pulled out my digital recorder to record our conversation and realized it wouldn't work. Long story short — I discovered Plaud, an AI-assisted device that can convert our hour-long phone calls into usable text without altering his speech and store it all on the cloud. Today, we have over 73 calls totaling over 100 hours, and many thousands of words over more than 30 chapters. We meet 6 days per week — this will continue for months if his health holds up. Without AI, we could not do it. AI generates nothing: the entire finished product is his voice. I also have it summarize each of our daily calls so we can easily pick up where we left off the next day without losing valuable ideas or information — it acts like a fancy admin. AI is a Godsend for him--the opportunity to create a few final manuscripts at the end of this life.
Thanks for sharing this story with us, James. First, I'm so glad you've been able to be with your friend at this critical time in his life. What a gift to both of you. This is a great example of how some tools make work possible that wouldn't otherwise get done. It's very similar to how I use Otter ai o create transcripts of my classes. Those transcripts help people with auditory processing issues, hearing loss, and those who need more processing time gain access to my material. Without that tool, those transcripts wouldn't be possible.
I have heard very good things about Otter AI. It is a good alternative to Plaud — I chose Plaud because it excels at recording calls on my phone, and the desktop version automatically records my Zoom meetings. Also, FYI, if you wish to check in from time to time on the writing project with my friend, I have started posting 3-4 times per week on Substack — it is fully dedicated to this project.
I'm glad Plaud works with your phone. I don't think Otter does. I'll keep it in mind for future projects. I'll try to check in on your project as my time allows.
This is such a unique & helpful perspective, Lisa. This past week, I ran into a page I wrote for work years ago, and have maintained since, that was "rewritten" by a coworker. The same coworker who decided to "train" an AI model to write SEO content for us. Now, I can't unsee his use of it everywhere. In almost every email he sends. It's so clear that it's not him. It's enraging.
At the same time, I use AI to clean up sentence structure when I'm writing email after email, or to help my brain fogged mind brainstorm or clarify what I'm trying to say in a paragraph. I'm learning a lot these days about "support"--what supports my chronically ill body needs, for example, and really, AI is a support for me in some areas. But for my coworker, it is atrophying his skills, like you mentioned. There's always a risk for a support to lead to that, but if you're using something mindfully, I think you're protected from that.
Thanks for sharing your perspective, Katie. You bring an important topic to the fore, which is how AI is helping support people with chronic illnesses and those with disabilities. For example, I know that some people on the spectrum use it to help with social issues or to improve relationships by brainstorming how to respond. It's made big differences in their lives. As someone who lives with brain fog, I know the importance of getting support and asking for help when it's needed. To me, this fits into my "is it helping me be present and supporting my humanity" bucket. Thanks again for sharing this.
It's a relief to have some help from AI when I am on a fast-learning curve with memoir writing. Like Betsy, I use AI to better understand concepts like "braided memoir" and what my braids might be. I also use it for research, like for comps. It's not always accurate, but gives me leads, and is way faster than slogging thru amazon descriptions for each author's central question.
After it started praising me for my fabulous ideas, I started laughing. But what author doesn't need a little boost once in a while, even if its from a robot??
A final caution: because AI remembers everything you tell it, even after weeks, be VERY careful when you are feeding your own text in to help it give you answers. You wouldn't want it to steal your work!
Thanks for sharing your perspective and how you're using AI. I'm glad you're aware of its limitations and it's tendency to hallucinate. Here's an egregious example of someone over-relying on AI to the point where they lost their job: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/mar/31/the-new-york-times-drops-freelance-journalist-who-used-ai-to-write-book-review. I do think it's important to tread lightly and consider how your work is being used. Paid accounts allow you to turn off LLM learning, which can help, but also who knows.
I really enjoyed the post Lisa, and I liked your “there are no right answers” open-minded approach. I’ve been using AI for historical research on my memoir and more recently for advice on structure. However, I draw a firm line at AI generated prose. So when I make my queries, I ask specifically for structural advice and constantly restate that I do not want any suggested prose. The program confirms the no prose request.
And since I’m writing a memoir and not a novel, there is no possibility of AI generated ideas or content since it’s only about my own stories. Used this way. It feels like an advanced Grammarly, filtered by my healthy skepticism about the limits of a computer program giving advice on creativity;)
Thanks for reading this post, Bruce and for sharing your AI boundaries. Setting limits on what it shares with you is a great guardrail to set. it allows you to benefit from the insights without crossing into the aspects of AI that can get writers into trouble. :)
Thx Lisa. This is very well thought through. And I agree, we each have to determine if, the and why we opt to use AI and our values around those choices. You've provided a great template to get us started. TY
Thanks for reading this, Andrea. It means so much that this resonates with you. AI is likely here to stay, and the more we know about our feelings about it, the more we'll stay aligned with our values as we navigate its spreading uses in daily life.
Thank you so much, Katie. I really appreciate your feedback, especially since you write so thoughtfully about neurodiversity and all the topics you cover.
Thank you for this article, it's become a topic with infinite considerations. Early on I found myself AI-resistant because I always fear what impact technology and efficiency has on human connection and skill, but as I started experimenting with it, I now consider it a profound coach for me in various situations.
Hesitation is inevitable for any new tech. But couldn't we also consider a thesaurus or word processor as a new technology of their era? How many people would want to use a typewriter or notepad for their entire manuscript? The difference with AI is that this is a powerful technology - like being given a race car before we have our driving license. So I always proceed with extreme caution and discernment to know what is "right". Afterall, we still need to be able to lean on our conscience.
For my memoir/self-help hybrid, not only can it tell me where I've jumped too fast to "resolve" a situation, it can explain WHY I have a tendency to do that (my IT background) and what questions I can ask myself to "test" my writing on my own. That is invaluable and the "why" may never have come up in discussion with an in-person writing coach, and knowing the why was a game changer. It didn't re-write anything for me - but I also have created the boundaries so it knows I don't want it to write for me.
We can (and must) use discernment to leverage this technology so that it can improve our efficiency while maintaining our unique voice, but it requires experimentation to learn how to set those boundaries effectively. I consider AI the same as partnering with a mentor who reads your work and offers feedback. Some writers may lean too heavily on their mentors, and the difference with a person mentor is she would hopefully guard against this. Whereas with AI, it may let you lean as heavily as you like. That is where discernment, like gaining driving experience with the race car, needs to come in.
Thanks for sharing your careful use of AI and how it has benefited you, Tina. I think as long as people establish values around their use and they're very aware of what they know--and don't--know, it can beneficial. The most important thing is for the user to be smarter and more skilled in the area they're asking AI to help with. Also, here's an essay about how people railed against the printing press during Gutenberg's time. They argued that it was cheapening knowledge. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-war-against-printing/
Thank you, Lisa, for this incredibly thoughtful post! I think every student of writing should read it, and I plan to share it with my college composition students. I admit to being about as anti-generative AI as most anyone can come. I have a visceral reaction to the technology, one I tried to subdue at first, attending conferences and workshops and even experimenting with AI for a year or two, trying to make myself "like" it, trying not to be a stick-in-the-mud "Luddite," trying hard to see the advantages. But even after all that, I've come to the conclusion that, despite the advantages it may indeed have, frankly: I just can't. Considering the environmental havoc it wreaks and the crutch it so easily becomes, I'd rather stay as far away as I personally can. That said, I try to remain open-minded to other viewpoints and am curious about the beneficial (and hopefully responsible) ways others might find to use it. I am especially interested in what fellow writers and other creatives have to say on the topic.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and your considered opinion regarding AI. Being a conscientious objector to AI use is a completely valid response to a form of technology that is being tested on us, and according to an interview with John Oliver, is being published so they can figure out what it is and how it works. (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykvf3MunGf8). I love that you're open-minded, yet clear about where you stand. That's what I hope for everyone who reads this article. And thank you so much for sharing it with your students. That means so much to me.
And the environmental impacts are real. I'm paying close attention to how that's playing out, especially since there are plans to build several data centers in Virginia.
I used AI to help me understand the central question I want to write about. There are so many ways I could write about the events as a cancer survivor, an invest survivor, a woman who traveled the world with a family of four, etc. how to shape a long an interesting life that works help someone else who is struggling with a similar issue. I money story and got a helpful outline for how I might write it that would find an audience. I stopped there. All the wrong, scene choices, development will be mine. The AI suggestions will help me know what doesn’t belong.
Thanks for sharing how you're using AI, Betsy. Getting it to help you see outside the box is a great way to open up your story and claim what you'd like to do with it.
As long as AI helps us think, AI is of great help.
If AI prevents us to think, to research, to make up our own mind, then, it is not.
Hi, I brainstorm with AI. I copy a sentence from my writing, check it outside of my writing platform with one or two AI if it makes sense grammatically or if I can get away with it in my poetry, as I am French.
I really like the positive feedback or discovering that I am saying something totally different from what I though in French I was writing in English. Lots of fun. Interesting conversations. I'd like to have my English friends at my side to check my work, and do this work with me but, they have their own things to do. I like to think that AI is a university supervisor so knowledgeable in everything. I had a few friends like that when I was studying. Very rare actually. I would have to check with hundreds of people for the information I need. I like it that AI, more and more, is citing their references, so I can check further.
I am using an edit service for all levels of my drafts, but when it comes to correct the last draft, and to add more poetry, I need fast answers. Before AI, I would check the internet dictionaries and grammar sites before using or changing my sentence. it was very slow and was taking my focus away. That's for my books. For my blogs, I check my whole text with AI before publishing, to see their suggestions. I usually like my own sentences, I find theirs a little too professional cliché, they stay with the reader while with AI, we might get a perfection that does not connect necessarily. But AIs always help me with the grammar. Like this text, is not corrected by AI. It is long, not many people will read it because of that, I'm gonna try Claude to see if you like the next one better:
my question: hi, could you make this text easily understandable and readable for everyone:
response:
Here's a clearer version: (Why I use AI for my writing)
I'm a French poet writing in English, and AI has become my brainstorming partner. I'll copy a sentence from my work and check it with one or two AIs—does this make grammatical sense? Can I bend the rules for poetry?
I love discovering when I've accidentally said something completely different from what I intended. It's fun, and the conversations are genuinely interesting.
Ideally, I'd have English-speaking friends reviewing my work alongside me, but they have their own lives. AI fills that gap—like having a university supervisor who knows a little about everything. I knew a few people like that when I was studying, but they're rare. Otherwise, I'd need to consult dozens of sources for the same information.
I appreciate that AI now cites references, so I can dig deeper when I want to.
I use an editing service throughout my drafts, but for final polishes—adding more poetry, making quick decisions—I need fast answers. Before AI, I'd scroll through dictionaries and grammar sites. It was slow and broke my focus.
For my books, AI helps at the finishing stage. For my blogs, I run the whole text through AI before publishing to see suggestions. Usually I prefer my own sentences—AI suggestions can feel too polished, too professional. They stay with the reader in a generic way, while my imperfect lines might actually connect better. But AI always catches my grammar mistakes.
I trimmed repetition, broke it into shorter paragraphs, and kept your voice and meaning intact. Let me know if you'd like it even shorter or in a different style.
thank you
You're welcome!
The sentence: “For my books, AI helps at the finishing stage” is not true. I would have to revise my text to make sure I do not give that impression. And the intention of my text is "How I use AI" not just "why"
I know, the AI version looks so much clearer. I would for instance make sure I start my text by saying that I'm French. And create paragraphs. So I cheated, and added space between sentences in what you see above, while, originally, it was just a lump quick answer.
But again... as for clear perfection, I have a story.
I usually write research and project proposals in a clear, simple way, coming from experience and testimonies that have an impact and sometimes change the culture of the funders (I think).
Once, I worked with an exceptional PHD professor who was so knowledgeable, so amazingly English, so brilliant. So brilliant. We changed my text, for instance the title from 4 words became a 30-word title. I was so amazed. Floating in a cloud of thousands of brilliant words.
When we did not receive any news of acceptance or rejection from the funder, I called them and talked to someone who told me that, as soon as she saw the title of our proposal, she put everything in the garbage. A million dollars in the garbage, which could have changed the world... And I understood.
I had let myself be impressed by someone who had no idea what the heart of the project and of the people involved was about, some intellectual who really wants to know but is totally disconnected from reality, but who could write perfectly about it. I failed to be the bridge I was supposed to be between academy and community. I learned, but again... one million dollars!!! We'll get it next time. We learned. Didn't we?
But then, what if it is an AI entity who evaluates the proposals? What would we do to get that million?
conclusion:
As long as AI helps us think, AI is of great help.
If AI prevents us to think, to research, to make up our own mind, then, it is not.
But again... where's the money? What would we do to get it?
Could we make sure we don’t sacrifice the heart of our intentions and of the people involved?
note:
because I sort of knew not many people would make it to the end of this comment, I copied and pasted part of my conclusion at the beginning. So you can do your own thinking.
Hi Chantal, thank you for sharing your process, and for sharing your conclusion at both the beginning and the end. It's spot on: "As long as AI helps us think, AI is of great help.
If AI prevents us to think, to research, to make up our own mind, then, it is not." The big question we all want to ask, and keep asking, is how will we know when it's truly assisting us? I don't have any answers. It's just a question I'm meditating on.
This question is as old as the world... when is something truly assisting us.
Discernement. Something we need to see for ourselves. Or ask AI ;-)
Well said!!!
Thank you! :)
Thanks, Lisa. Two months ago, I flew back to Maryland to visit a dear friend. He is a marvelous 92-year-old retired physician who has developed significant health issues, including several strokes and macular degeneration, so he can no longer read. He is also a non-fiction writer (44 books) and had hoped to finish his autobiography and a book titled "The Perils of the Spiritual Path". I offered to help — he accepted. I flew home--hopeful. But then, I wondered, how can I do this? I am not a professional editor, and the logistics are significant. I pulled out my digital recorder to record our conversation and realized it wouldn't work. Long story short — I discovered Plaud, an AI-assisted device that can convert our hour-long phone calls into usable text without altering his speech and store it all on the cloud. Today, we have over 73 calls totaling over 100 hours, and many thousands of words over more than 30 chapters. We meet 6 days per week — this will continue for months if his health holds up. Without AI, we could not do it. AI generates nothing: the entire finished product is his voice. I also have it summarize each of our daily calls so we can easily pick up where we left off the next day without losing valuable ideas or information — it acts like a fancy admin. AI is a Godsend for him--the opportunity to create a few final manuscripts at the end of this life.
Thanks for sharing this story with us, James. First, I'm so glad you've been able to be with your friend at this critical time in his life. What a gift to both of you. This is a great example of how some tools make work possible that wouldn't otherwise get done. It's very similar to how I use Otter ai o create transcripts of my classes. Those transcripts help people with auditory processing issues, hearing loss, and those who need more processing time gain access to my material. Without that tool, those transcripts wouldn't be possible.
I have heard very good things about Otter AI. It is a good alternative to Plaud — I chose Plaud because it excels at recording calls on my phone, and the desktop version automatically records my Zoom meetings. Also, FYI, if you wish to check in from time to time on the writing project with my friend, I have started posting 3-4 times per week on Substack — it is fully dedicated to this project.
I'm glad Plaud works with your phone. I don't think Otter does. I'll keep it in mind for future projects. I'll try to check in on your project as my time allows.
This is such a unique & helpful perspective, Lisa. This past week, I ran into a page I wrote for work years ago, and have maintained since, that was "rewritten" by a coworker. The same coworker who decided to "train" an AI model to write SEO content for us. Now, I can't unsee his use of it everywhere. In almost every email he sends. It's so clear that it's not him. It's enraging.
At the same time, I use AI to clean up sentence structure when I'm writing email after email, or to help my brain fogged mind brainstorm or clarify what I'm trying to say in a paragraph. I'm learning a lot these days about "support"--what supports my chronically ill body needs, for example, and really, AI is a support for me in some areas. But for my coworker, it is atrophying his skills, like you mentioned. There's always a risk for a support to lead to that, but if you're using something mindfully, I think you're protected from that.
Thanks for weighing in, as always.
Thanks for sharing your perspective, Katie. You bring an important topic to the fore, which is how AI is helping support people with chronic illnesses and those with disabilities. For example, I know that some people on the spectrum use it to help with social issues or to improve relationships by brainstorming how to respond. It's made big differences in their lives. As someone who lives with brain fog, I know the importance of getting support and asking for help when it's needed. To me, this fits into my "is it helping me be present and supporting my humanity" bucket. Thanks again for sharing this.
Mmm I love how you've named that bucket! Such a beautiful way of phrasing it.
Thanks! Buckets help me stay in alignment when it comes to AI. :)
It's a relief to have some help from AI when I am on a fast-learning curve with memoir writing. Like Betsy, I use AI to better understand concepts like "braided memoir" and what my braids might be. I also use it for research, like for comps. It's not always accurate, but gives me leads, and is way faster than slogging thru amazon descriptions for each author's central question.
After it started praising me for my fabulous ideas, I started laughing. But what author doesn't need a little boost once in a while, even if its from a robot??
A final caution: because AI remembers everything you tell it, even after weeks, be VERY careful when you are feeding your own text in to help it give you answers. You wouldn't want it to steal your work!
Thanks for sharing your perspective and how you're using AI. I'm glad you're aware of its limitations and it's tendency to hallucinate. Here's an egregious example of someone over-relying on AI to the point where they lost their job: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/mar/31/the-new-york-times-drops-freelance-journalist-who-used-ai-to-write-book-review. I do think it's important to tread lightly and consider how your work is being used. Paid accounts allow you to turn off LLM learning, which can help, but also who knows.
I really enjoyed the post Lisa, and I liked your “there are no right answers” open-minded approach. I’ve been using AI for historical research on my memoir and more recently for advice on structure. However, I draw a firm line at AI generated prose. So when I make my queries, I ask specifically for structural advice and constantly restate that I do not want any suggested prose. The program confirms the no prose request.
And since I’m writing a memoir and not a novel, there is no possibility of AI generated ideas or content since it’s only about my own stories. Used this way. It feels like an advanced Grammarly, filtered by my healthy skepticism about the limits of a computer program giving advice on creativity;)
Thanks for reading this post, Bruce and for sharing your AI boundaries. Setting limits on what it shares with you is a great guardrail to set. it allows you to benefit from the insights without crossing into the aspects of AI that can get writers into trouble. :)
Thx Lisa. This is very well thought through. And I agree, we each have to determine if, the and why we opt to use AI and our values around those choices. You've provided a great template to get us started. TY
Thanks for reading this, Andrea. It means so much that this resonates with you. AI is likely here to stay, and the more we know about our feelings about it, the more we'll stay aligned with our values as we navigate its spreading uses in daily life.
I didn’t check this for automatic word choices so it’s a bit hard to follow. A good example of the daily pit falls of AI!
I think what you shared was clear. I appreciate your thoughtfulness, Betsy! :)
this is such a perfect way to approach thinking about AI. I love this. Thank you for taking the time to write such a careful essay.
Thank you so much, Katie. I really appreciate your feedback, especially since you write so thoughtfully about neurodiversity and all the topics you cover.
Thank you for this article, it's become a topic with infinite considerations. Early on I found myself AI-resistant because I always fear what impact technology and efficiency has on human connection and skill, but as I started experimenting with it, I now consider it a profound coach for me in various situations.
Hesitation is inevitable for any new tech. But couldn't we also consider a thesaurus or word processor as a new technology of their era? How many people would want to use a typewriter or notepad for their entire manuscript? The difference with AI is that this is a powerful technology - like being given a race car before we have our driving license. So I always proceed with extreme caution and discernment to know what is "right". Afterall, we still need to be able to lean on our conscience.
For my memoir/self-help hybrid, not only can it tell me where I've jumped too fast to "resolve" a situation, it can explain WHY I have a tendency to do that (my IT background) and what questions I can ask myself to "test" my writing on my own. That is invaluable and the "why" may never have come up in discussion with an in-person writing coach, and knowing the why was a game changer. It didn't re-write anything for me - but I also have created the boundaries so it knows I don't want it to write for me.
We can (and must) use discernment to leverage this technology so that it can improve our efficiency while maintaining our unique voice, but it requires experimentation to learn how to set those boundaries effectively. I consider AI the same as partnering with a mentor who reads your work and offers feedback. Some writers may lean too heavily on their mentors, and the difference with a person mentor is she would hopefully guard against this. Whereas with AI, it may let you lean as heavily as you like. That is where discernment, like gaining driving experience with the race car, needs to come in.
Thanks for sharing your careful use of AI and how it has benefited you, Tina. I think as long as people establish values around their use and they're very aware of what they know--and don't--know, it can beneficial. The most important thing is for the user to be smarter and more skilled in the area they're asking AI to help with. Also, here's an essay about how people railed against the printing press during Gutenberg's time. They argued that it was cheapening knowledge. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-war-against-printing/
Thank you, Lisa, for this incredibly thoughtful post! I think every student of writing should read it, and I plan to share it with my college composition students. I admit to being about as anti-generative AI as most anyone can come. I have a visceral reaction to the technology, one I tried to subdue at first, attending conferences and workshops and even experimenting with AI for a year or two, trying to make myself "like" it, trying not to be a stick-in-the-mud "Luddite," trying hard to see the advantages. But even after all that, I've come to the conclusion that, despite the advantages it may indeed have, frankly: I just can't. Considering the environmental havoc it wreaks and the crutch it so easily becomes, I'd rather stay as far away as I personally can. That said, I try to remain open-minded to other viewpoints and am curious about the beneficial (and hopefully responsible) ways others might find to use it. I am especially interested in what fellow writers and other creatives have to say on the topic.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and your considered opinion regarding AI. Being a conscientious objector to AI use is a completely valid response to a form of technology that is being tested on us, and according to an interview with John Oliver, is being published so they can figure out what it is and how it works. (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykvf3MunGf8). I love that you're open-minded, yet clear about where you stand. That's what I hope for everyone who reads this article. And thank you so much for sharing it with your students. That means so much to me.
And the environmental impacts are real. I'm paying close attention to how that's playing out, especially since there are plans to build several data centers in Virginia.