The other week I used an AI chat-bot thing to review and tighten some short form content I’d written. It left me feeling icky.
Yes, there were some positives:
- I tightened my writing
- The feedback got me thinking more about tone, audience, and outcome.
And some negatives I noticed:
- The ease at which I could hand over authority to software, and if not careful, my critical thinking.
- The risk of sounding generic in my writing and losing my voice.
- The environmental impact and social costs of using AI are not something I want to support.
The negatives felt much greater than the positives and while my writing was in a better place than where it started out, I can’t say it was worth it.
Reflecting, I would rather have feedback about my writing from a person, in person. I can learn about elements of my writing like tone of voice, audience, clarity, etc. from a book and verify my progress with an editor – an expert. There’s something about having a conversation with a living, breathing, thinking, knowledgeable, unpredictable, messy human that for me, AI can’t match.
What about you?
Does AI make you feel icky?
Are you missing that human connection in your creative work?
