I don’t read books and blog posts to connect with algorithms. I read to connect with people.
Writing Is More Than Words on a Page
In her recent book, The Curious Reader’s Field Guide to Nonfiction, writing expert Anne Janzer points out that very often readers feel a personal connection with their favorite authors. They develop a relationship with those authors as fellow humans.
She bemoans the fact that Artificial Intelligence-generated books destroy that relationship. As she says, “We read to connect with people, not algorithms.”
AI Doesn’t Write—It Predicts
Unfortunately, some writers are giving AI some idea prompts and then letting AI generate text for their articles and books.
Obviously, it’s faster and easier than the hard work of writing. But what is generated is not their writing, and it does not reflect their thinking after wrestling with ideas during the writing process.
Writing Is Thinking Out Loud: Something AI Can’t Do
AI doesn’t write—it simulates writing. Giving AI some of your thoughts and letting it write your first draft is not writing.
What it produces may look like writing, but it’s only syntax strung together. As John Warner says, “Large language models do not write. They generate syntax.” More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI.
There’s no wrestling with an idea, no emotion, no values shaping the words. Writing is thinking, and that struggle is precisely what’s missing in machine-generated text.
“What ChatGPT and other large language models are doing is not writing and shouldn’t be considered as such. Writing is thinking. Writing involves both the expression and exploration of an idea, meaning that even as we’re trying to capture the idea on the page, the idea may change based on our attempts to capture it. Removing thinking from writing renders an act not writing.”
More Than Words, by John Warner.
Why I Unsubscribe From AI-Written Blogs
Reading AI-generated text is like trying to have a relationship with an AI-simulated girlfriend. On the surface, AI simulates a relationship, but there’s no real emotion, care, or love behind the communication.
I’ve unsubscribed from blogs where I’ve learned the writer is using AI to generate the first draft. Aside from bare initial thoughts, the human elements are entirely missing.
I want to connect with humans who write, not with simulations. That’s the point of reading—and it’s the heart of writing.
The Gray Zone: Can AI Ever Help Writers?
I’m not saying AI has no place at all. Some writers use it for suggestions for headlines, brainstorming, or making suggestions to improve their written text. In those limited roles, it can be a helpful tool. But that’s very different from letting it generate the heart of your work.
It’s also proper to use AI to generate what I call functional text: responses to email, generating statistical reports, etc. Those are not “writing” in the sense of the creative human process of writing.
The danger comes when we outsource the actual writing—the struggle to find words for our own ideas. That struggle is where clarity, originality, and voice are forged. If we give that part away, the writing may look polished, but it isn’t ours anymore. And editing an AI-generated first draft doesn’t make it yours. (For more about the problems of using AI to generate first drafts, see my post, The Art of Writing: Why AI Shouldn’t Write Your First Draft.)
So yes, use AI if it saves you time on the edges. But when it comes to the words themselves—the sentences, the turns of phrase, the unique way your thinking takes shape on the page—that has to remain human. That’s the difference between a tool and a machine ghostwriter.
A Challenge for Readers and Writers
When I read, I’m not just looking for information. I’m looking for a human voice. I want to know how another person thinks, feels, and wrestles with ideas. That’s the relationship I value—and it’s the one AI can’t deliver.
So here’s my challenge to you:
• If you’re a reader, pay attention to the difference. Notice when the words you’re taking in carry the weight of a real person’s mind and heart. Choose to read actual writing; that which a human, not a machine, has written.
•If you’re a writer, resist the temptation to outsource your voice to a machine. The struggle to put your own ideas into words is the very thing that makes your writing worth reading.
• Embrace messy first drafts.
• Treat writing as thinking.
• Focus on cultivating your unique voice.
That’s what I want: not simulated writing, but the genuine connection that only comes when one human writes for another.
AI Note: I wrote this blog post myself, using my own words and thoughts for the initial draft. I used AI only to suggest headlines, section headings, and text improvements.
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