Another Reason Not to Use “AI” For Your Writing

It’s not fair that newer writers will have to prove (to a larger extent than more established writers) that they can actually write, and that what they’ve written is actually their own work, not the result of a prompt. It’s especially unfair when the makers of the tools writers use to write — I’m looking at you, Microsoft and Google — are frantically stuffing “AI” tools into the programs writers rely on. No, Microsoft, I don’t fucking want Copilot to “help me write” in Word, and no, Google, I don’t fucking want Gemini to “help me write” in Google Docs. The very fact these “AI”s are hovering around my writing at all is bad enough from a provenance standpoint. These “AI” tools are making it harder for all writers in this regard, not easier.

As someone who writes for my site, as well as trying my hand at a novel, this kind of scares me. I write all my posts in markdown, and I've gone back and forth between writing my novel in markdown or LibreOffice. None of my tools have AI assitants or AI tooling built in, which is what I want, but anyone reading or judging my writing won't necessarily know that. Newer authors are going to have to find a way to prove to publishers and the world that they wrote it themselves. It's not something I look forward to.