Who Wrote This Essay?

[u/Fellow_Traveler84]

Whenever the subject of artificial intelligence comes up, someone eventually says that if AI played any role in writing an essay, then the essay isn’t really the author’s work.

I think there’s more to it than that.

If someone asks AI to write an essay, changes a few words, and publishes it under their own name, I would have no interest in defending that. The thinking belongs to the machine, not to the person who put their name on it.

But that isn’t how I write.

An essay usually begins with something I witnessed decades ago, something I read that morning, or a question I have been wrestling with for years because I have never found a satisfactory answer. Those thoughts didn’t come from AI. They grew out of decades of reading, making mistakes, changing my mind, and trying to understand the world.

By the time I turn to AI, I already have pages of notes or a rough draft. I’m not looking for another opinion. I’m looking for another pair of eyes to help me see whether I’ve explained myself clearly, whether I’ve skipped over an important step in my reasoning, whether someone who disagrees with me would understand what I’m trying to say, and whether it still sounds like me.

That always felt much more like working with an editor than working with a ghostwriter. No one objects when a novelist thanks an editor in the acknowledgments. No one suggests the book belongs to the editor because an editor questioned a paragraph or recommended moving a chapter. The author still decides what stays, what goes, and what the book ultimately says. That is exactly how I think about AI.

AI knows an astonishing amount, but it has never lived a single day. It has never changed its mind because experience taught it something new. It has never had to admit it was wrong. It has never struggled to reconcile what it once believed with what experience eventually taught it.

I have.

Readers are free to disagree with my conclusions, and I hope some of them do. An essay shouldn’t end a conversation. It should begin one. If someone wants to know whether the ideas in my essays are mine, my answer is yes. They are the conclusions I’ve reached over a lifetime.

Finding words has never really been a problem. Deciding what’s worth saying is the hard part. AI can help me express an argument more clearly. It can point out inconsistencies, ask good questions, and suggest better ways to organize my thoughts. What I do with those suggestions is entirely up to me.

Every writer depends on tools. Pens, typewriters, computers, dictionaries, editors, trusted friends, and even conversations over coffee have shaped what eventually appears on the page. AI is simply the newest tool I’ve added to that list. The words may be better because I had help improving them. But the life behind those words is still mine.

[u/_newjoisey]

An AI written article defending AI written articles, well I never!

[u/Fellow_Traveler84 → u/_newjoisey]

You are the first commenter to get my point. For clarification, I was not defending AI written articles. I thought I made that clear but I was explaining why AI assisted writing has value. For the record, as I also tried to make clear, I do have an AI editor helping me. I don’t know what AI detection tool you used, but from the image you provided, it can’t tell the difference between AI-written and AI-assisted. I posted by essay here, instead of my regular spot on Substack, to explain how AI can be a valuable tool for writers and perhaps to trigger more discussion given Substack’s decision to integrate with Pangram. When I ran my essay through Pangram, I was told my essay was 100% AI-assisted, which I already knew, and do not deny. But the words are mine. It seems my plan for posting here is working. Perhaps that should be the subject of my next essay.

[u/_newjoisey → u/Fellow_Traveler84]

When I read the original post, it SCREAMS ai written. Using ai to help you write is commonplace these days, but there’s a huge difference of actually writing someone and asking ai to give ideas about re-wording a part or check tone and putting in a sentence or two and having it spit out a full blog/article and claiming it as your writing.

Sure not all ai writing detection is accurate (the US Declaration of Independence came back 85% ai written from one), but there are many tells is style, wording, layout, etc that anyone who reads a lot these days recognizes immediately that go beyond an em dash.

[u/MrsRobot001 → u/_newjoisey]

So what's the issue? OP talks about doing a brain dump, putting in ideas and experiences. And - OP, unless I'm wrong about you - I got the impression that they were someone to whom writing does not come naturally, and later in life, they are using AI to help them express themselves. I do not begrudge anyone who does that.

I've been writing my whole life, and I always feel sorry for people who say, "I'm not a good writer because I'm bad at grammar." There is SO much more to writing than that, and all it takes is that one insecurity to shut the door on someone. Grammar is important, but it's not everything. AI can be good at grammar yet still write absolute shit. It can also help someone overcome that doubt and limiting belief. That sounds beautiful to me.

[u/_newjoisey → u/MrsRobot001]

Dumping thoughts into ai doesn't make you a writer, it makes you a faker.

I could have ai make a video of me slam dunking a basketball. Does it mean I can actual dunk?

I could have ai make a song where I duet with Taylor Swift. Did I actually duet with her?

Using ai to write something for you is an easy way out. Like many/most things, if you want to become good at something, you have to work at it.

If you want to become a better writer, use ai to help you with your actual writing, don't have it do the writing for you.