REAL Writers Deny AI

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

Please forgive my bluntness, but it is better to get this out of the way. To write is to exercise literacy. It’s no big deal, the skill to compose sentences. What it is not, is ‘writing.’ Composing 2,000 words a day for a year does not make you a ‘writer.’ You were lied to — I’m just setting you right.

What’s more, a ‘writer’ strives to spell correctly. Spell-checkers are a practical poison — you use them to catch what you missed, not as a crutch that allows you to be lazy.

The same applies to grammar checkers. Only a fool wouldn’t take advantage of such a tool, what’s important is ‘how.’ A ‘writer’ looks at these tools in the way you should always get a second opinion before major surgery, and every mistake is like a lash across your back — something to learn from and not repeat.

It’s about respect for the craft and your personal dedication to mastering the vocabulary and structure of your language in composition. If you can’t commit to these, you’ll most likely never make it.

Out-sourcing your craft to machine intelligence is far worse than fraud because it shows that not only do you lack the requisite respect for the craft, neither do you respect your reader and there is no greater sin — other than, perhaps, your utter absence of integrity.

So What’s a ‘Real’ Writer, Then?

Real writers are motivated — obsessed, even — to rise above merely expressing their literacy. Whether they choose to make sense of current events, distill the fundamentals of sophisticated subjects, or offer an escape into fictional fantasies, writers share themselves with the world.

Share THEMSELVES. They understand and accept their risk of failure and release their words, their ideas, and their stories into the public light. And, like any painter, sculptor, or musician, they agonize over their creations, editing, rewriting, and refining their work in order to render the best of themselves.

It’s a Matter of Pride

A real writer would no sooner out-source their craft to an AI than a chef resort to frozen entrées. Inferior quality aside and the issues of fraud and counterfeit which we’ll get to a real writer knows their reputation rides on their integrity and the pride earned through mastering their craft.

Striving to move beyond common literacy and shine among the endless mediocrity engendered by the digital age takes commitments of time and effort, investments in patience, and sacrifice.

AI is Counterfeit

So what if AI can generate a month’s blog posts in minutes? A real writer could never stoop to such disrespect for their audience, that they only deserved the machine-paraphrased previous work by other humans.

AI might be unequaled at organizing and presenting information, but it cannot offer anything new. AI cannot move beyond its programming. AI cannot offer any option not encoded within its datasets.

Like a music disc jockey, AI can only remix, and never ‘create.’

Paraphrasing the same shit a thousand times is about as useful as a freezer at the North Pole. And then to put your name on it, like you wrote it or something, well, let’s call it fraud. Because it is. You are cheating by stealing the output of another (even if it’s a machine), adding your name as the creator, and then profiting by deceiving your audience with recycled garbage.

So, Are You a Writer or a Fraud?

And if your answer was ‘so what,’ I can assure you that you are not a writer.

Don’t be a fraud.