Being a Writer in the Age of AI

I can’t get online these days without someone discussing AI and its many harms within the writing and publishing world (both actual and potential). I wrote a few of my thoughts as Chat GPT was emerging in the public sphere as something now widely accessible to the masses. You can read those here if you’re interested. Even at that time, I reserved the right to change my mind as more information became available, and as we’ve began to see more real-life impacts, some of my views have shifted.

Everything is AI now?

Initially, I was mostly focused on stolen work used to train these kinds of models, plagiarism, AI slop books flooding the market, and the general loss (or attempted replacement) of human creativity. Those remain primary concerns, two years out from that original blog post, but I’ve got one to add: The discrediting of legitimate writers due to things people now associate with AI writing—em dashes, lists, “it’s not just XYZ but ABC” (negative parallelism), symbolism, and other commonly used tools any reasonably skilled writer would implement in their work. Wikipedia has a page devoted to common signs of AI in writing and I use almost all of them! Most writers do, if they’ve received any kind of education on the subject at all.

I don’t know why, but I hadn’t considered this possibility at the time. Authenticity and credibility are central values for me, and I hold myself to a really high standard when it comes to these things. Just for fun, and to sate my curiosity, I ran one of my early stories through an AI checker. I wrote this piece a good 20 years ago, when the internet was a relatively new thing and there certainly was no generative AI. Still, the checker determined it was 40% AI. FORTY PERCENT. So, somehow my college self managed to write an AI story nearly two decades before we even had public access to these tools. I shudder to think what my current work would return, because I’m a significantly better writer than I was back then, and I love me an em dash these days.

The problem is, I’ve also seen several authors called out for it who did utilize AI, and obviously so. More than one writer has released a book with the AI prompts and responses still in the published copy. Literally, did anyone edit those books, because what? But this handful of people misusing the technology makes it that much harder for those who don’t touch generative AI. It’s a real concern, and not just for me. I’ve seen several authors called out for their use of AI, when there is no evidence of it at all, save some overly wrought prose. One author provided screenshots and files of their earlier drafts with timestamps so people could verify they’d been working on it for years. I only see this problem growing, as we continue to face a literacy crisis, and as the general public becomes increasingly incapable of discerning AI writing from human expression.

I like to think I can spot AI writing—and I maintain that I can, most of the time—but after witnessing the way the models respond, and how we are learning to prompt it differently to yield more “human” responses, I’m not so naive as to think I’m immune to falling for it. The harsh reality is that it’s everywhere, and it’s only growing.

What do we do?

What does this mean, especially for those of us pursuing creative careers?

I wrote a tongue-in-cheek comment on a Tiktok video discussing this topic, saying something along the lines of “It’s fun being a decent writer in the age of AI,” and it’s the most liked comment on that video to date. Thousands of people seem to agree, and many fellow writers commented below it, commiserating. I’d said it lightheartedly, but it resonated, and I understand why.

For many of us, we’ve been writing our whole lives. Poetry and prose have been my best friends, carrying me through some of the hardest times. I’ve spent countless hours in creative writing classes, both in school and independently. I’ve attended workshops, webinars, and conferences. I served on the editorial board and selections committee for my school’s literary magazine. I’ve regularly attended writing groups. I’ve hired coaches and editors. I’ve worked with some incredible critique partners. I have devoted unimaginable energy to honing this craft, not only as a way to further my skills as a writer, but as an honoring of the very thing that’s sustained my life. It really is that deep for me. And no computer is infusing their work with the heart and passion I do. I’d venture to guess it’s the same for my fellow writers.

And that’s the hope I have.

AI cannot replicate humanity, no matter how sophisticated. So, at least as of right now, my belief is that we must continue to dedicate ourselves to being as human as possible in our work. I predict that, as AI floods every sector of our lives, human touch is what will become most valuable in creative fields. Real art, created by real people. It will be the organic food of the publishing industry. At some point, regulation will come, and being able to label our work as 100% human-conceived and human-made will be the mark of true quality and craftsmanship. We will value the work that took this level of effort and skill, and it will be viewed as the premium product in the marketplace.

Maybe that’s idealistic. I’ve been told on more than one occasion that I’m naive and think the best of people too often. I’m willing to acknowledge that might be true. However, I’ve been proven right enough times in my life that I refuse to give up my optimism. We are human, after all, and no matter how fragmented and hyper-independent we become as a society, we all still crave human connection. That’s what we can offer as writers. I know that’s what I’ll be doing.