Using AI to help you write is not a road we should go down

Up until recently technological advances in writing have been to my benefit as a writer. For example, without the internet we would not have self-publishing in the way we do now, print-on-demand, indie presses or even Amazon itself. Without the internet and everything it has brought us, it would have been much harder for me to realise my dream of becoming a published author.

Without the internet I would be unable to effectively market my books and build an author platform. I would not have my blog, my author accounts on social media, or good old Canva to help me make cool graphics.

In many ways, the internet offered a level playing field to writers. It didn’t matter so much who you were or where you came from, how wealthy or poor you were, or how educated or uneducated. There were no more gatekeepers — not if you were happy to take the independent route anyway.

Of course, being able to self-publish didn’t mean you would automatically sell a lot or gain any kind of following or respect, but hey, it was a start. At least our books were out there.

Up until now, technology has been a friend to me on my creative journey. I’d much rather type on my laptop than my old vintage typewriter, for example! The spelling and grammar check on Word is handy, and is there if I need it. So is Google — helping me research various topics without even have to leave my desk.

All of these things have helped me, so of course I am grateful for them. Have they made me a better writer though?

No. Experience has made me a better writer. Getting older has made me a better writer. Regular reading has made me a better writer. And my editor has made me a better writer. Funny how those things are all human…

Which is why I am unequivocally not in favour of writers using AI as a tool to help them write. To me, it’s cheating. There, I’ve said it. Now let me explain why, and let me explain why I do not advise new writers to go down that road.

Let’s put aside for now the many ethical issues with AI. The fact it is terrible for the environment and the fact it was trained by stealing from the published works of creative people without their permission. By the way, those two facts alone are enough for me to steer clear of it. Not that steering clear of it is easy! That’s another whole issue too. How exactly are we to avoid it?

Let’s stick with writing. What writing is, what it means to be a writer. I often think there are two kinds of writer if you want to be really basic about it. There is the writer who is born a writer: they’ve had a head full of ideas for as long as they can remember; they’re probably a maladaptive daydreamer; they frequently drift off into their own little worlds and they write all the time, every day, no matter what. Not because they want to but because they have to. They would still write even if the internet vanished. They would still write even if they never made a penny from it. They would still write even if no one ever read a word of it. They have to write.

The second kind come to writing a little later maybe. They have that one good idea they can’t let go of, and eventually they drum up the courage to do something about it. They then get the bug and realise they have a whole lot more to say. They may, for this reason, be a little more motivated by money, reads and respect. If the money dried up, for instance, they might not bother again.

I have the privilege of working with young writers. My job is supporting and encouraging them on their own writing journeys by offering prompts, challenges, activities and feedback. I run various clubs online and in person for children aged between 7 and 18. I love my job.

Nearly all of these children fall into the first category of writers I mentioned. Making money and future careers are not on their mind at all. They simply love writing. They were writing before they joined my clubs, and I have every faith they will still write after they leave.

Imagine my distress then when one of my young writers told me that they often use AI to help with their writing. In their own words, ‘to help them get better.’ Imagine my frustration when another, even younger writer, told me their school teacher had shown them how to use AI to write whole stories. They couldn’t understand why I wasn’t a fan of this. I wanted to remind them that there would be no job left for me if this trend continued. If they use AI to ‘get better’ at writing or if they use AI to write a story for them, what do they need me for?

So, that’s one concern. The other is that they are simply selling themselves short and taking the quick route to finishing a story or a project.

I didn’t say it to them, but my honest opinion is that using AI to help you write is cheating. I am not talking about using a spell check or grammar check — that is not the same thing.

I am talking about writing a paragraph and then asking AI to make it ‘better’ for you. I am talking about having ideas for a story and then asking AI to write it for you. I am talking about using AI to craft your emails or to regurgitate articles and essays here on Medium. I am talking about handing over your own beautiful creative human soul to AI.

It makes me want to cry!

The way I feel is this: writing should be hard. Crafting the perfect email should be something you take time over. Constructing a poem to reveal your inner feelings, should take a long time. Novels should be written draft after agonising draft. Blood, sweat and tears should go into writing because writing is important! Goddamn it, writing is what makes us human. Telling stories has been part of our lives since the very start. Telling stories, reading books, listening to music, dancing, acting, sewing, knitting, all of these creative and imaginative pursuits are what make us human.

Writing is far too important to hand over to AI.

I have had a few discussions with young writers about using AI and they have outlined their reasons for relying on it, but they have failed to change my mind. One of the reasons someone gave was that they knew what they wanted to say but not how to say it, so they wrote the paragraph of the essay then asked AI to reword or reorganise it.

NO, I wanted to scream, that’s your job! That’s called editing. Editing, revising, rewriting are all important aspects of writing and they are how you learn to get better! You can’t tell me AI teaches you these things. You’re not going to learn that way. You’re going to learn by figuring it out for yourself.

And yes, I know, a writer rarely works alone. After many, many drafts of a novel, the writer uses beta readers, editors and proof-readers to polish up that product. Please don’t tell me that’s the same as using AI because it bloody isn’t. Firstly, do we really want to see all those people out of jobs? And second, AI cannot do what they do. It cannot replace the relationship you build with these people, it cannot relate to you and your writing in the way they can once they understand your writing voice and style. And worse than all of that, AI is trained by using other people’s work… Do you really want your writing to sound like someone else’s?

And let’s go back to writing voice and style because I think that is one of the main things at risk from using AI to ‘help’ you write. Having your own unique voice is one of the most important and beautiful and human things about writing. The fact that the same thing can be said in so many different ways simply because we have different personalities, is beautiful to me. Fascinating. Even with my youngest writers I notice their different styles. That’s a unique human thing and we cannot allow AI to replace that.

How will new and young writers ever find their writing style and voice if they use AI to help them so early on?

One of the people I discussed this with stuck to their argument, which was fine, but I told them again and again, you do not need it. You have got this far without it. This person is incredibly smart and articulate, and has their own writing style and voice. One I hugely admire. They do not need AI!

In fact, I would go as far to say that the there are only two groups of writers who do need AI, and even they shouldn’t use it. Writers who are just not very good and don’t want to learn how to get better, and people who want to make a fast buck by using AI to churn out ebooks.

From someone who spends years on each book I write, it makes me feel genuinely sick. These people are not writers and do not understand how important writing is.

AI is diluting what it means to be a creative human being. It genuinely worries me. Not only does it make me fear for my job, both as an author and as a creative writing tutor, but I fear where it will lead us. What will be the outcome of this? What will future writers sound like? What if the authors of the future can’t even string a sentence together by themselves because they never learned how? What if the writers of tomorrow never connect with other creatives because they’ve asked AI to craft all their emails and correspondence, used AI as an editor and proof-reader, and churned an ebook out that has no heart, no soul, no meaning?

I worry about how this will impact human imagination. I worry about how this will affect the whole process of what it means to be a writer. Writers who rely on AI will miss out on so much: the joy and tears of trial and error, of success after failure, or pushing through writers block to get to that finish line, of holding a book in your hands and smiling joyfully as you rightfully claim, I wrote this!

My final argument against the use of AI in writing is this. Shakespeare didn’t need it. Jane Austen didn’t need it. The Brontes didn’t need it. Stephen King didn’t need it. Countless authors who have touched our lives, inspired us, made us laugh and made us cry for hundreds of years, got this far without AI helping them — so why the hell do we need it now? We don’t.

We can and should do it ourselves.

I’m going to give the final words on this debate to one of my favourite poets and authors, Charles Bukowski. Bukowski wrote a lot of poems about writing but this is my favourite and this is exactly how I feel about writing.

“If it doesn’t come
bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.

Unless it comes unasked
out of your heart
and your mind
and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.

If you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.

If you’re doing it
for money or fame,
don’t do it.

If you’re doing it because
you want women in your bed,
don’t do it.

If you have to sit there
and rewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.

If it’s hard work
just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.

If you’re trying to write
like somebody else,
forget about it.

If you have to wait
for it to roar out of you,
then wait patiently.
If it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

If you first have to read it
to your wife
or your girlfriend
or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you’re not ready.

Don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of people
who call themselves writers.
Don’t be dull
and boring
and pretentious,
don’t be consumed with self — love.

The libraries of the world
have yawned themselves
to sleep over your kind.

Don’t add to that.
Don’t do it.

Unless it comes out of your soul
like a rocket,
unless being still
would drive you to madness
or suicide
or murder,
don’t do it.

Unless the sun inside you
is burning your gut,
don’t do it.

When it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by itself
and it will keep on doing it
until you die
or it dies in you.

There is no other way.
And there never was.”

Charles Bukowski