Writing with AI is the Dumbest Shit I Wo ...

Writing with AI is the Dumbest Shit I Would Ever Do

Oct 23, 2024

It makes no sense to me

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

AI is the devil.

Okay, it’s not. So dramatic. But let’s be real. When it comes to artificial intelligence, people either love it or see it as the harbinger of doom for the human race.

What’s my stance on AI though?

I neither hate nor love it. To put it more accurately, I love it in some ways and hate it in other ways. I used to be skeptical about it, but now I see it as the tool it was created to be.

Yes, AI is a tool. And like every tool invented by humanity, it can be abused. More often than not, the tool itself is not the problem but how we use it.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly the kind of problem we’re seeing with the amazing technology of AI.

I could go into all the truly awful things people are using AI for, many of which are deeply rooted in misogyny (what isn’t?). But that’s not what this essay is about.

Instead, I’d like to focus on just one thing which is pretty damn common these days — writing with AI.

The Internet is awash with AI-generated content. Everyone and their dog is writing with AI these days. If you ask me, using the word ‘writing’ to describe that drivel is quite generous.

I don’t care what anyone says, but typing a prompt into a machine to generate a bunch of words is not writing. It’s well… prompting.

I’ve seen dozens of articles talking about how to write with AI or make ChatGPT sound more human. Each time I come across these kinds of stories, I ask myself, “What’s the point?”

No, seriously. What’s the point?

What is the point of using AI to write an article — and in many cases, a whole damn book?

It makes absolutely no sense to me.

Obviously, people have their reasons for writing with AI, but to me, it defeats the entire purpose of writing. I love every stage of the creative process:

  • Brainstorming ideas

  • Outlining

  • Writing the draft

  • Revising

I benefit so much from actively participating in each stage, and I can say without exaggeration that I’m a much better version of myself because of that.

Writing is thinking. When you outsource it to AI, you’re essentially outsourcing your thinking. What do you think is going to happen to your creativity if you continuously depend on a machine to think for you?

Here’s why writing is important to me.

1. It helps me process my thoughts and feelings.

When I write, I tap into the unknown crevices of my mind. I process my thoughts and feelings on a much deeper level, which helps me understand myself better.

When my mum passed away in May this year, writing was the number one thing that helped me make sense of my grief.

Writing also declutters my mind which helps me to communicate better. I used to be really bad at expressing myself. But I’m a better speaker today because writing made me a better thinker.

2. I want to create compelling stories that transform my readers.

My mission as a writer is simple:

To create stories that make people feel — stories that draw out all sorts of emotions within people and make them think deeply long after they’re done reading.

If I’m to create such powerful stories, I must practice the craft of writing every day.

You know, actually writing stuff with my brain and all. Natural Intelligence (NI), if you will.

Now, AI apologists may argue that with the right prompts, you can train ChatGPT to write compelling stories too. You know what, maybe you can. I’m no expert.

But when I tested this theory to see what all the rave was about, it was way less exhilarating than coming up with ideas on my own. As of now, I have countless ideas for thirteen different novels — every single one of them is far more interesting than anything ChatGPT could ever dream to come up with.

Now, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using AI to brainstorm ideas. It’s one of the many ways writers can use it efficiently as a tool. However, my point is that I have way too many ideas to even care at all.

And besides, how amazing is it to know that your own words are powerful enough to stir such deep emotions within people?

3. I enjoy the feeling of high that comes from writing.

I love writing too much to let AI do it for me.

You see when I create stories, I get lost in a flow state where nothing else matters.

Time doesn’t exist. My body, mind, and spirit meld into one, and I forget I’m even alive.

It’s the most addictive feeling ever.

Every time I finish a writing session, I feel completely nourished and genuinely joyful.

However, I only attain this heightened state of awareness when I use my natural intelligence. If I outsource it to AI, I will most certainly never reach this creative depth I crave.

So why the hell will I even do it in the first place?

What’s the point of writing with AI?

I don’t think people who use ChatGPT to write actually enjoy the process of writing. Because if you do enjoy it, why will you outsource it to a machine?

Why will you let a machine generate words for you and claim you ‘wrote’ them?

At first, I didn’t understand why people would do this. But then it finally dawned on me.

It’s all because of money.

AI produces content much faster than the fastest human writer.

I’ve heard about authors who churn out dozens of books in a single month by using AI.

Why else will they do this if not solely to make money?

Now don’t get me wrong, I love money. Maybe even more than you. Trust me on that.

But to me, money is not the reason why I write. I’ve been writing for free since I was seven. I wrote on Medium for 21 months before the Medium Partner Program became available in my country.

If I was solely motivated by money, I would have quit somewhere at age ten. But the truth is, money is just a bonus.

Just as I continued to write when I made $0, I will also continue to write if I make a billion dollars today. Nothing changes. This means using AI to produce more in less time just to make more money is a dumb move on my part.

Besides, increasing my productivity is not a good enough reason to write with AI. While quantity is important, so is quality. To balance both, you must be willing to create at your own pace — allow your ideas to marinate and you’ll produce some of your best work.

If you simply focus on quantity to churn out content after content with AI, you’ll stagnate. Maybe you’ll make more money, sure. But eventually, you’ll need to step up your game in a world where there’s an increasing demand for human writing. Then again, it’s likely that most of the writers who are obsessed with AI-generated content don’t care about improving their craft.

If that’s fine by you, by all means, go for it.

But to me, what’s more important is to become a better writer, thinker, and human. Money is merely a by-product of all the above.

So if I don’t write with AI, how do I use it?

In case I haven’t already made it clear, AI is amazing technology. It’s neither good nor bad. It just is.

As I already said, it’s a tool. How we use it is what makes it good or bad. For me, writing with AI does more harm than good. So I don’t use it in that way.

I use AI tools as my writing assistant. I’ll write another article that explores it more deeply. But in the meantime, here are some of them:

  1. Editing: I use Grammarly for editing and proofreading. It’s an efficient tool for polishing my work. But sometimes it makes some strange suggestions that can erase my voice or style. So yeah, I don’t always listen to Grammarly.

  2. Research: As a fiction and nonfiction writer, I need to do lots and lots of research for a story. Before ChatGPT, I was doing all my research via Google search. But ChatGPT has become one of my favorite tools for researching information about people, places, topics, and so much more. It’s simple, streamlined, and efficient, unlike on Google where I have to sift through dozens and dozens of articles just to find what I want.

  3. Word generator: As a fantasy writer, I often create fictional names for concepts, magic systems, cities, artifacts, and more. I’m pretty good at coming up with fictional words, but sometimes when I need more options, ChatGPT helps me with that.

  4. Thesaurus and dictionary: This is by far the most common way I use ChatGPT. Before that, I used Google to find the meaning of words and their synonyms (I still do this sometimes though). But ChatGPT is much faster and more efficient. If I want synonyms of a particular word, I just type in a prompt and ChatGPT gives me a list of words I can select from.

Final thoughts

AI can help writers in many different ways. But the actual process of writing is never one of them.

I can understand why some people use it to write though. But to me, it’s not something I want to do. I get way too many benefits from using my natural intelligence to create. So I don’t see myself outsourcing it to AI anytime soon.

I might have a change of heart if someone invents a machine that can directly read my thoughts and transcribe them into words.

Read my other story on AI.

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