The human touch in an AI-driven writing world
- Schalk Mouton
[Column] As AI infiltrates the world of writing, human-driven composition is still irreplaceable.
It's a crisp autumn morning in Johannesburg. The kind of morning where the air is so clean and fresh, you can almost taste the pollution from the nearby mine dumps. I'm sitting at my desk, staring at the blinking cursor on my computer screen, willing the words to flow from my fingertips onto the digital page. But today, something is different. There's an intruder in my creative space, a digital interloper that promises to make my life easier but instead fills me with a sense of dread.
An AI writing assistant has been installed on my computer, ostensibly to help me write faster and more efficiently. What its proponents didn't mention was that it would also make me question my entire existence as a writer.
As I sit here, trying to compose my column, the AI assistant keeps popping up like an overeager puppy, offering suggestions and completing my sentences. "In today's fast-paced world..." it begins, and I can already feel my soul leaving my body. Is this what writing has come to? Pre-packaged phrases and?ideas generated by an algorithm?
Endurance of dinosaurs
I remember the good old days, just a few years ago, when the most advanced technology in my writing arsenal was the spell-check function. Now, I'm expected to collaborate with a machine that claims to understand the nuances of language and storytelling better than I do. It's like having a backseat driver, but instead of navigating roads, it's trying to navigate my thoughts.
My colleagues have all embraced this brave new world of AI-assisted writing with?enthusiasm. Just yesterday, I overheard two of them discussing their latest articles.
"I wrote a 2000-word feature in just 30 minutes!" one boasted.
"That's nothing," the other replied. "I generated three different versions of my column and let AI pick the best one."
I couldn't help but interject. "But where's the creativity in that? The personal touch? The blood, sweat, and tears that go into crafting each sentence?"
They looked at me as if I'd suggested we go back to using typewriters and carrier pigeons. "Oh, Schalk," they laughed, "you're such a dinosaur."
Perhaps I am a dinosaur, lumbering towards extinction in this sleek, efficient AI-driven world. But my concerns go beyond mere nostalgia. I worry about the future generations of writers and critical thinkers. Will they ever know the satisfaction of finding the perfect word after hours of mental wrestling? Will they understand the joy of crafting a sentence that sings, that resonates with readers on a deeply human level? More importantly, will they develop the critical thinking skills that come from the writing process itself?
Writing is thinking
Writing is not just about producing words on a page. It's a process of discovery, a way to explore and refine our thoughts. Writing forces us to slow down, focus our attention, and think deeply about a subject. It's a test of our understanding, a way to realise the gaps in our knowledge and fill them.?
In a world where attention is fragmented in seconds, where we're bombarded with information from multiple sources, the ability to think deeply and critically becomes more valuable than ever. Writing requires us to stick with a problem a little longer, to develop a deeper understanding. It's not just about conveying information; it's about processing it, analysing it, and synthesising it into something new.
Convenience trumping creativity
I recently had a conversation with a 20-something-year-old colleague about this very topic. Fresh out of university and brimming with technological enthusiasm, she couldn't understand why I insisted on writing my columns from scratch when I could simply use AI to generate a draft for me. Her question seemed as natural to her as using a smartphone is to her generation. If there's a more convenient way to do something, why not use it?
But convenience isn't always the point. The reason we write is not just to produce content, but to engage in a process of thinking and reasoning. By delegating writing to AI, we might be saving time, but we're missing the chance to think more deeply about the topic at hand.
Writing is the process by which we often realise that we don't fully understand what we're talking about. It's easy to have a surface-level understanding of a topic, to read a few articles and feel like an expert. But when we sit down to write about something complicated and difficult to pin down, we often discover how much we don't know. It's like claiming to be a professional athlete without ever having trained.
Transformational writing
Writing offers a vehicle for discovering deeper insights. When we write, we're forced to take a complicated and ill-defined problem and distil it into something more manageable. This process not only helps us reflect on our ideas but often leads us to develop new ones.
The insights we discover through writing are not limited to the subject about which we write – , we also learn more about ourselves. Writing doesn't just convey our ideas; it conveys a part of us. Our personality and worldview become part of the work itself. While the reader remembers the story, the writer is forever changed.
AI can certainly help with many aspects of writing. It can generate ideas, check grammar, even produce coherent paragraphs on a given topic. But it can't replicate the cognitive processes that occur when a human sits down to wrestle with their thoughts and put them into words.?As we move further into this AI-driven world, I worry that we're raising a generation of writers who will be more adept at prompting AI than actually writing. They might produce more content, faster, but at what cost to their thinking skills? In a world where intellectual labour is increasingly outsourced to tools, the human aptitude for clear thinking and unique insights will become more valuable.
Accomplished sans AI
The famous fantasy fiction writer, Terry Pratchett, said that writing is the most fun you can have?by yourself. I fully subscribe to that idea. I love writing. I always have. I also love journalism, as it provides the writer (or content creator) with the means to delve into a topic. Research it and speak to incredible people to tap into their ideas and thoughts on the topic. You then get the chance to internalise all this information, make it yours, and then present it as a work that you can be proud of. If there is one thing that I fear AI might take from us – if, in fact at some stage it becomes as clever as everyone thinks it will – it would be pride and a sense of accomplishment. I pledge never again to “construct” a single one of my columns by using AI. And, for the reasons mentioned above (and in the AI column), I will never accept an AI generated story for Curios.ty.
So, while I may be a dinosaur, I'll continue to write the old-fashioned way. I'll wrestle with my words, agonise over every sentence, and pour my heart and soul into every column. It may not be as efficient, but it's authentic. It's human. And in a world increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence, perhaps that's the most valuable thing we can offer.? Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go and figure out how to uninstall this AI assistant before it offers to write my resignation letter for me. After all, some things are just too important to delegate to a machine.
AI Disclaimer: This column was fully written by Claude.ai. All I did was upload some of my previous columns, tell Claude what I wanted, the tone that I wanted it in, and the number of words that I wanted. I also included some of my views on writing with AI, which are reflected in the column. I then made a couple of small edits and tweaks to the prompts to get a final version. While this version was completely adequate (and hopefully fools my boss into thinking that it took me the full two weeks that I told her it took me to write the column), I don’t feel it is my work. I don’t feel proud of it and have no attachment to it whatsoever. I wouldn’t even mind if our sub-editor cut parts of it to make it fit.?(Why would I do that to a piece written by a superior power?! - Sub Ed)
- Schalk Mouton is Editor of ty and a reluctant AI user.
- This article first appeared in?Curiosity,?a research magazine produced by?Wits Communications?and the?Research Office.
- Read more in the 18th issue, themed #Work, which delves into the evolving nature of work, shaped by societal shifts, technological advances, and equity challenges.