“AI is the power drill; you’re still the carpenter.” ~ ChatGPT generated Quote
When I was younger, school was hard, especially learning to read, write, and speak the English language. As someone with dyslexia, I often transposed letters and words. Things started to change when I learned how to work with my learning disorder instead of against it. The right tools made all the difference. By the time I got to college, I had moved from a typewriter to a word processor, as personal computers became available. Then came Google and spellcheck, each one a breakthrough, each another tool in my writer’s toolbox.
Using AI in Writing: Blessing or Crutch?
Now we’ve entered the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It’s fast, clever, and, like it or not, here to stay. AI is a tool for writing—editing drafts, checking grammar, and improving flow. I even used it to help refine this post. But when people use AI to generate entire reports or write books, that’s where I draw the line.
For me, writing is like painting with words. It’s rhythm, voice, and personal expression. Like Jackson Pollock flinging paint on a canvas, each writer brings their own unique style. That’s something AI still can’t replicate. What it does is recycle and repackage data, regurgitating what it’s already consumed through algorithms designed to mimic the human brain. It’s artificial thought made up of ones and zeros.
That said, AI does shine in one area I love: coding. Whether it’s VBA, Python, or C#, I give it clear input and output requirements, tell it what I want the program to do, and it usually nails it. No surprise there. We’ve been feeding machines structured data for decades, from mainframes to cloud computing, so it’s no wonder AI fits so well in that space.
I still use AI in my writing process, for editing, grammar, and structure, but I always revise, rewrite, and refine. The results rarely sound like me, and sometimes the facts are just plain wrong. So no, using AI doesn’t make me a tool. AI is a tool for writing like the power drill in a carpenter’s hand. It’s still me swinging the hammer, crafting the words, and telling the story.
Thoughts, gripes? Drop me a comment at chazh@sitka2.com or visit www.sitka2.com
