Is AI turning our brains to cottage cheese?

I recently read an article about the number of people using writing programmes. This included students, employees in various professions and even people looking for romance. It is true that the steady hand of a chatbot may have restrained a number of emails that I never should have sent. Yet, I still would never trust a computer programme to express my own ideas, much less my feelings.

What are people losing in letting another entity speak for them? Between friends or potential romantic partners, a person would be losing the opportunity to portray themselves honestly. That could lock them into an uncomfortable relationship where they are living behind a mask. Not really a friendship then.

For students, they are losing the chance to delve into a topic and learn it in their bones. Knowledge fully digested can be experienced and used in an original manner. Discoveries come from a thorough grasp of the material. In short, the less people choose to master their subject area, the less achievements we will make in terms of new research and development. I must add, if you can’t be asked to write an essay for a course to which you have committed three years of your life, why are you studying the discipline??

Employees who communicate and deliver ideas via an online generator are reducing their work to the common denominator. After a point, all production will become similar and in line with whatever the computer programme deems correct. The question to ask is, who is feeding these programmes and do they have a sane moral compass?

Every time I enter a writing contest or submit a piece for publication, I am asked, ‘Is this AI generated in any part?’ Of course not! The process of writing is creating a world out of a specific person’s imagination – not a casserole of ideas thrown together from a catalogue of online ingredients. Yes, I do use a programme to check my spelling and grammar. Often this programme recommends a more concise means of expressing my idea. This I ignore. I spend an inordinate amount of time choosing the words in my sentences. Once I spent an entire hour on a single sentence. Every word has a nuance of meaning that must align with my characters and my plot. No computer can make that choice for me.

Some people hate writing. I get that. There are days when I hate it too. If that is the case, then talk to people. Don’t let a bot steal your voice.