This was originally posted on blogger.

I want to say that I don’t write blog posts with AI. I say that, while also thinking that there may be good reasons to. And I may try it in the future. Here are some points for using AI and counter-point, too.

Point:

• When a director “creates” a movie, they do not create it individually. The director provides the creative direction, importantly chooses what goes in the final cut. Yet it is actors, editors, writers and producers that do the day-to-day work to make it happen. I might write a blog post with AI in the same way that a director creates a movie. Doesn’t that have artistic validity?
• Sometimes something is just a fraction of an idea, but I’d need help/motivation to turn that into a full piece. Oftentimes examples and structure can help flesh out the idea to the reader. For instance, I had an idea, “solo travel is like joining the Jesuits”. I felt like it had legs, but didn’t know enough to really make the argument. AI stepped in in that moment.

Counterpoint:

• Using AI to write doesn’t let you practice writing. Why is writing an important skill? It is the intentionality of words, the careful selection of language to put on a piece of paper. Writing is a way to essentialize yourself. Your written work is a textual manifestation of yourself.
  • Counter-counterpoint: Can’t writers that collaborate with AI have their own personal mark? Directors of movies are assisted, but they have their own distinctive style. I wonder how much artistry and uniqueness there is to ordering about AI in the way that exactly works for you.
• It encourages the creation of junk. The author doesn’t have to put in so much effort into creation, and so that which is created is less thought-out. Of course, you can be a thoughtful, careful collaborator with AI so that you only say what you mean. You can also be a thoughtless, careless writer even without AI.
• It completes your thoughts. Perhaps a continuation of Counterpoint #1. When I’m writing, I’m forced to exactly think what I want to say. It is a certain way of looking at yourself. When AI completes your statements, it may not be an exact reflection of what is on your mind. But you may roll with it anyways.
  • Additional thought: AI is genuinely a useful thought partner. I can have a discussion with AI and learn a lot. It can take an idea or theory I have and strengthen it greatly. Still, this point stands in the sense that I believe it’s important to have sovereignty over thinking, to have a space where your thought stand independently from external forces.