| “The demise of writing matters, because writing is not a second thing that happens after thinking. The act of writing is an act of thinking. This is as true for professionals as it is for students. In “Writing Is Thinking,” an editorial in Nature, the authors argued that “outsourcing the entire writing process to [large language models]” deprives scientists of the important work of understanding what they’ve discovered and why it matters. Students, scientists, and anyone else who lets AI do the writing for them will find their screens full of words and their minds emptied of thought.” |
| – Derek Thompson, via Substack |
From: “The Daily Writer” by London Writers’ Salon.
https://londonwriterssalon.com/
I read the “Daily Words of Wisdom” —well, daily— from the London’s Writers’ Salon. They are always good, and today’s topic is something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. I’ve always felt that I, personally, discover what I think, what I know, and what I want to know best through writing. I’m also better able to tap into memory and creativity through writing. I seem to retain more information and integrate knowledge into my soul better through writing. For example, if I read a brilliant fiction or nonfiction book and write an essay about it, I amplify the many benefits gleaned from the reading–these benefits range from an awareness and appreciation of literary technique all the way across the spectrum to a synthesis of understanding on any variety of topics.
Because of my love of writing, and my deeply held belief in its power and many benefits, I wanted to share this and ask you for your thoughts. Do you agree with Derek Thompson’s view that “Students , scientists, and anyone else who lets AI do the writing for them will find their screens full of words and their minds emptied of thought”?
LakeArrowheadLadyWriter 
I have a hard time with this. Trying to determine what may be beneficial with Ai and yet feeling it inhibits creativity.
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Me, too, Kathy. I don’t want to be stuck in the past, but I just see so many red flags.
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The thing I love most about writing is knowing that there are countless ways to get to the finish line. Everyone’s process is a little bit different. I have no problem with using AI for research purposes, but it saddens me to think we could reduce such a creative endeavor like writing to those who have the best AI tools.
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Yes, Pete. And the best AI tools are not living beings- thus, what happens to creativity? Will there be a new way of defining it? I am worried.
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‘the act of writing is the act of thinking.’ – yes
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Thanks for your reply Beth! 🥰
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Yes, writing is thinking, especially done in longhand. . .
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Hurray for cursive. 😉✍🏻
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I so appreciate this point of view. I have to write my own thoughts. The benefits are as you outlined above. What happens to critical thinking when AI does your writing for you? Keeping your brain active and engaged using all the magnificent functions provided by God is essential for me. The invasion of AI as a means for more productivity removes a valuable benefit. Are we in such a state that we remove the process of learning on a continual basis? Sometimes I get tired of Grammarly. There are times when I want to say what I want to say the way I want to say. Just my thoughts.
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SanVercell, I totally appreciate your thoughts! Thank you!
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While I agree with this, it’s unfortunate that it’s coming from Derek Thompson, who recently took a jab at Krasznahorkai for his experimentation in literature (in response to K. winning the Nobel no less). So though I agree that AI can potentially limit creativity, I’d argue Thompson needs to expand his creative purview as well.
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Thank you for pointing this out. I did not know about Thompson’s jab. I appreciate your insight!
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I process my thoughts similar to you Lori. It helps me to remember, to think clearer, to be more creative, if I can write things out for myself. And like most people, I think there is a place for AI but if it’s misused to do the writing for people, we will end up seeing a loss of thinking skills.
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Thanks for your reply, Rose! I am sure hoping that we don’t lose our skills or creativity. It’s all moving so quickly. Hopefully many people will still seek to create using their own voice, experience, knowledge and insight. 😊
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What an interesting comment and question. I totally agree that the act of writing is an act of thinking. Fascinating to think about how replacing the writing process with AI will impact it. I wouldn’t go so far as emptied of thoughts but it will take some intentionality to keep the flow going! Thanks for the great post, Lori!
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Thanks for the reply and hurray for keeping the flow going, Wynne! 🥰
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Whoa my goodness, yes! I agree! I need to “think through my fingers” – whether it’s longhand or keyboard taps. Processing, processing from the inside out. I think what AI generates as consumption the other way, trying to absorb from the outside-in. Not necessarily bad…but definitely not the same. More shallow? I dunno! Thanks for asking the question! 🥰
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I love this, Vicki: “I think what AI generates as consumption the other way, trying to absorb from the outside-in.” That’s so apt! Thanks so much for commenting!
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My pleasure! Big hugs! 🥰
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I agree with this, Lori: “the act of writing is an act of thinking” I’m still trying to decide whether AI is good or not. I think it has or will have its benefits. But I believe that thoughts are organic, creative, and unique to the writer, flowing onto a page of a journal through longhand, or they make it onto a laptop. I’m just not a big fan of AI. Thanks for the great question. I’d have to give this more thought. 🥰
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Thanks for your thoughtful reply, Lauren. I agree with you completely about the organic, creative flow. To not experience that—well, it seems like a tragedy to me. I, too, need to give it more thought! 🥰
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As a longtime daily journalist I’ve always thought the world would be a better place if everyone who lived in it sat down at the end of the day (or the next morning) and wrote a couple of clear concise sentences (or paragraphs, or even pages) about what happened that day. To sit and THINK about the effect that outside influences have on your well-being, your world view, your LIFE, gives you such a better understanding of yourself and your place in the world. To allow AI to write those sentences for you is to cheat yourself out of getting to know yourself.
See you at lunch today!
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Yes! Thanks for this, John. You capture the importance of the link between life and thinking and writing so well! And hurray for seeing you and Jan today!
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Totally Agree!!!!
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☺️
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I often don’t really know what I think about a subject or topic until I write about it.
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Exactly! I often answer guided journal prompts and begin by writing about what I don’t know—that will usually lead to thought development and discovery. It is so helpful and can be surprising!
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AI is good at a number of things that we, has humans, are not good at, like finding patterns in a large amount of data. For example, based on a documentary I saw the other day, AI found hundreds of new Nazca drawings based on satellite imagery by scanning the very faint outlines of heavily faded and eroded patterns. Something the human eye could never have found without being pointed in the right direction. However it took the human intelligence and creativity to re-write the explanation of why the lines are there – that was outside the AI’s paradigm.
Using AI to find patterns is on the same level as using the Hubble telescope to find new objects in space. We are using a tool to do the part of the job that our body is not good at.
In the same way AI can find patterns in writing to give feedback on a piece of writing or create an essay for a teacher, but only using material available to it. It could never write the essay I wrote on my FEELINGS about being solitary rather than social. For me the act of writing is about expressing my thoughts and feelings and learning more about myself, and AI can’t do that for me.
As someone I worked with once said “I am a human BEING not a human DOING” – his boss was not impressed!
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Thank you, David! I needed to read something positive about AI. I tend to fret about it, and that doesn’t help.
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I have a background it IT and as a friend who was an expert in the field said once “AI is very Artificial and not at all Intelligent”.
I look at it this way. Since the start of the industrial age we have developed machines that did physical work to save us doing it. Major earthworks projects like tunnels, canals, etc were already being build by thousands of workers risking life and limb to do it. Modern machinery can support a small number of workers to achieve the same thing in a fraction of the time in a much safer way. But a highly automated digger is not going to get bored and enter a weight-lifting contest.
Likewise AI can do many amazing thing that people can do with their brains rather than their muscles. I can’t remember the full details of this but I read that doctors were looking for a new cure for a condition and had come up with a number of treatments and drugs, resulting many thousands of permutations to test. They trained an AI in everything they knew about the drugs and their likely interaction with each other and it came back with a top 20 combinations in a matter of days and experimental work could start. It saved tham years of effort in generating their own list – but it was just a tool that got them started.
I admit I do worry, not about AI taking over as such, but about how the current economic model of doing a week of work for a week’s pay and that money allows you to buy the resources you use living for the week (plus a bit of savings) will change when the resources needed can be produced by 10% of the population working 1 day a week to support the automated production of all needed resources and only 20% of the population has the ability to do that work. How will resource be allocated, and how will the other 80% be contributing citizens. I know many economist are very concerned about this
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totally agree – great post! – and for me, nothing is better than journaling in longhand
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Yes! That taps right into your brain!
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