Why AI Cannot Write For You

I’ve been publishing a blog for over 12 years. To date, I’ve published over 3,000 essays on my blog. That’s an immense volume of work by any standard.

I have never used AI to write for me, and I don’t ever plan to.

Almost daily, I see an article online promising to teach me how to to use AI to write for me. I’ve even read of people who have trained AI on their work so that AI can write in their voice.

Admittedly, the concept of training AI on my work so it could write in my voice sounds tempting sometimes.

I imagine how much time I could save if I could tell an AI model the topic I want to write about and have it write for me in my voice.

But having AI write for me would defeat the point.

Why AI Cannot Write For You

Writing is not just about stringing words together to form sentences with correct grammar and syntax.

Fundamentally, writing is about developing understanding and learning how to express yourself.

Writing is not an outcome. It’s a process and a practice.

Writing is a Process

Writing is a process through which we develop understanding of topics, clarify thoughts and ideas. Writing is how you learn what you think, how to express yourself, and develop your own voice.

That’s what makes it hard. And that’s what makes AI unsuitable for the task.

When you try to outsource your writing to AI, you are really saying “this topic isn’t worth my energy to understand it.”

I do not allow AI to write for me because AI cannot do the work of understanding for me. It cannot think for me. And it cannot speak for me.

Writing is a Practice

Writing is a practice of sorting through the jumble of thoughts in your head to arrive at a coherent thesis. It’s the practice of getting out of your own way to express what is in your heart and mind. It’s the practice of building brain muscles.

Sometimes my writing is messy, unpolished, even incoherent. Sometimes it takes me several attempts to write through something before I can articulate it coherently.

That’s part of the process and the practice.

Writing is not just a cognitive exercise. It’s an embodied practice. You can’t outsource this practice any more than you can have AI lift weights for you in the gym or meditate for you.

AI can be useful for many tasks, but it cannot do your thinking and learning for you. You have to lift your own weights.