The ideas absolutely need to be the writer's own, using a GPT to refine your writing or to articulate your thoughts sounds more like a credible usecase. After iterating over 3 months of substack writing, sharing my wordsmithing buddy. It doesn't start unless you give it some original ideas and directions, It forces a real pause and gives your neurons a chance to fire.
Thanks Suja for trying it out. So far I have created this one which is consistently performing per expectations. As I create more, will continue to share on Substack. Let’s stay in touch!
For my writing, I draw upon my life experiences and personal insights gained from reading a variety of books, watching documentaries on different topics, and listening to podcasts that explore diverse perspectives.
I think AI is still very much a perplexing entity and it’s not clear how to move forward. I use AI for brainstorming and for editing recommendations, and still wonder if this still limits me. So I always vet what the AI says and try not to internalize its approach, treating it merely as a source and feedback mechanism. I definitely vet all the information it gives me through my own research, reading, and thinking, so the AI is not a sovereign source. I think it can be a tool but must be used responsibly and ethically if used, and it requires rigorous thought to use it, not as a means for outsourcing our own thinking. I think about this heavily and use AI cautiously because I care about the process and want to accomplish it on my own, but the feedback can still be helpful if used in the right way.
Right. Anyone who has properly used AI knows its limitations when it comes to creativity or original thinking. That part will remain with us humans, at least for now.
For now it is. My fear though is that in our pursuit of perfecting AI & progress, these computers will learn to teach themselves, and Space Odyssey 2000 will come into play. Our human brains will simply shrivel & atrophy from non-use & we will no longer be able to function or perform simple tasks without it's assistance. It sounds far-fetched or something in the distant future, but I'm fearful that it will come to fruition far sooner than any of us realize.
I’ve been practicing creative writing for many years, and it really helps me extract more refined meaning from my existence ☀️. Now I’m also posting my texts here (partly to practice my English 😎).
I agree with what you said about the real danger of AI being that it will make us so lazy we'll not be able to think for ourselves. We'll all move towards thinking like average as AI will flatten the edges in our thinking, attitudes, and behaviors.
Exactly. AI is a machine for producing mental entropy: it transforms the energy of creative chaos into statistical lukewarmness. The danger isn't error, it's the perfection of mediocrity.
Are you telling it to write said subject for me or are you having a discussion/interacting with it and making a paper from that discussion or interaction?
I don’t think you can ask it directly to write on any subject. Any writer using AI would tell you that the results are pretty bland and average. I think the writing always has to be done by oneself. You can’t have it think for you. But yeah it’s a good tool for brainstorming, fixing sentence structure, and maybe give some alternate viewpoints to get you to think more.
I think it depends on how you use it. If you just ask it to write for you, I agree it’ll be average. But if you interact with it and build from that interaction, it feels more like an extension of thinking rather than a replacement.
Efficiency isn’t always a good thing though. For writing good, I think we need to sit with it, think deeply about it, get bored, let our minds rest, take a walk, read, etc etc. All of this is inefficient, but I think, these are all necessary parts of good writing. What do you think?
Taking an original thought and shaping it into something others can see and feel is truly beautiful. But in a world where attention spans have shrunk so much over the past few decades, it often feels like the writing process carries less weight for younger generations like Gen Z and Alpha (of course, not everyone).
Hmm. So many people tell me that people don't read longer stuff anymore and that I should move to video if I have to make an impact. However, I have this naive hope that people want to read and that more and more people will have reel fatigue and they'll want to read. I'm not sure how true that is. It's just how I like to think.
Couldn’t agree more. Thinking critically in these crazy times is a superpower. Sometimes, I do fear though that AI might take away a bit from this ability, especially when I think about my young niece.
Interesting thoughts. I can’t wait to read the next article!
I’ve been using ChatGPT as an editor and personal assistant. It’s my content but I upload it and tell it how I want it to edit it and how I want my feedback. It helps with strategy and organizing my writing as well as word smithing. It’s a great tool but I’ve found that I need to continuously set boundaries or it will do everything for me. It seems to perniciously want to do my writing for me.
Hahah, yeah that’s true. We need to consciously stop it from letting it do all the work. I have also found though that when it does the full writing for someone (or even half of it), it’s not that good.
It's actually sad because nobody knows how to do anything anymore without some kind of assistance from AI. Younger generations don't even learn penmanship & cursive handwriting is an art from days gone by. I've used AI for help with my writing, but it's always mostly me. My thoughts, my words, my style. AI should be an editorial assistant, not the author.
This is such a complex subject. It's important to remember that just because we smack the label "artificial" in front of intelligence, doesn't change the fact that we are in uncharted existential waters.
Humans can't even fully define their own consciousness, let alone confirm or deny it in the context of machine learning.
Obviously, people who phone it in and aren't present are suffering losses of function. That seems a natural outcome of cognitive of absence and not necessarily the fault of AI, so much as a reasonable outcome of the practice itself.
This far, there's no comparable study on people who are using AI intentionally and with full presence. So it creates a false binary between use of AI and loss of function.
Obviously, don't outsource your intelligence-duh.
I'd also add that the reason writers and creators are using AI is die to the absolutely inhuman content density required by most platforms.
Writers aren't lazy. Their creativity is being exploited by tech that eats there ideas to train AI, ravages their industry, and charges them by the month to use a system trained on their unpaid labor.
It's a lot more complex than most headlines can encapsulate.
It is true that these AI companies use our content to train AI and then charge us for giving average output. The key is to understand that AI, for now, can’t think for itself and will always give an average of an answer. Only we have the the lived experience to actually feel stuff, process it, and then put it into words.
For me, writing is not only about how we think, but it’s also about how we show what we are thinking to others to make an impact. The impact could be the popping-up aha moments; it could also be the feeling of driving the action after that. AI can do this as well, given the ton of psychological theories. But the tone we have and the emotions we share would create a different connection with readers. Looking forward to reading part 2 to see how you connect it to AI.
The ideas absolutely need to be the writer's own, using a GPT to refine your writing or to articulate your thoughts sounds more like a credible usecase. After iterating over 3 months of substack writing, sharing my wordsmithing buddy. It doesn't start unless you give it some original ideas and directions, It forces a real pause and gives your neurons a chance to fire.
https://chatgpt.com/g/g-69a0a235b3708191bbb56bc523c29c08-wordsmith
Give it a go, I would love your feedback on this!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'll definitely try it out. :)
I am a beginner in AI and writing.
Wordsmith is helping me alot
I love it.
Do you have any other tools like wordsmith??
Thank you sm for sharing
Thanks Suja for trying it out. So far I have created this one which is consistently performing per expectations. As I create more, will continue to share on Substack. Let’s stay in touch!
Thanks 💓
For my writing, I draw upon my life experiences and personal insights gained from reading a variety of books, watching documentaries on different topics, and listening to podcasts that explore diverse perspectives.
That's amazing. Reading diversely would be number 1 for me. :)
I think AI is still very much a perplexing entity and it’s not clear how to move forward. I use AI for brainstorming and for editing recommendations, and still wonder if this still limits me. So I always vet what the AI says and try not to internalize its approach, treating it merely as a source and feedback mechanism. I definitely vet all the information it gives me through my own research, reading, and thinking, so the AI is not a sovereign source. I think it can be a tool but must be used responsibly and ethically if used, and it requires rigorous thought to use it, not as a means for outsourcing our own thinking. I think about this heavily and use AI cautiously because I care about the process and want to accomplish it on my own, but the feedback can still be helpful if used in the right way.
I agree. It should never do your thinking for you. But as a tool, I think it has its usefulness.
The challenge is to be aware that using AI can lead to outsourced thinking – and to not let it happen. Only then does its creative potential unfold.
AI doesn’t replace our voice; it makes perspective and responsibility visible. Talent shifts from skill to choice.
Authorship is still about direction, meaning, and risk – we decide the world we build by guiding AI.
Right. Anyone who has properly used AI knows its limitations when it comes to creativity or original thinking. That part will remain with us humans, at least for now.
For now it is. My fear though is that in our pursuit of perfecting AI & progress, these computers will learn to teach themselves, and Space Odyssey 2000 will come into play. Our human brains will simply shrivel & atrophy from non-use & we will no longer be able to function or perform simple tasks without it's assistance. It sounds far-fetched or something in the distant future, but I'm fearful that it will come to fruition far sooner than any of us realize.
Hope it never comes to that.
I’ve been practicing creative writing for many years, and it really helps me extract more refined meaning from my existence ☀️. Now I’m also posting my texts here (partly to practice my English 😎).
I’d be glad to meet somebody here 🫱🏻🫲🏻.
Wishing you the best of luck for your writing journey. :)
For the general public, AI is just an augmented and active search engine.
For industry, it's cold precision and computational security.
For governments, it's simply another police officer, silent and tireless.
Nothing extraordinary.
It's a pollutant like any other: it consumes energy, it generates heat, it endlessly processes billions of recycled data points.
It can simulate everything, predict everything, reproduce everything… except one thing: imagine.
AI doesn't create.
It loops.
It optimizes the cage it's been given.
The real danger isn't that it will become conscious.
It's that it will make us even more docile by making us believe it's thinking for us. Logos, on the other hand, doesn't loop.
It burns.
I agree with what you said about the real danger of AI being that it will make us so lazy we'll not be able to think for ourselves. We'll all move towards thinking like average as AI will flatten the edges in our thinking, attitudes, and behaviors.
Exactly. AI is a machine for producing mental entropy: it transforms the energy of creative chaos into statistical lukewarmness. The danger isn't error, it's the perfection of mediocrity.
A tool for editing, but never replaces original human writing
No doubt about that.
Are you telling it to write said subject for me or are you having a discussion/interacting with it and making a paper from that discussion or interaction?
I don’t think you can ask it directly to write on any subject. Any writer using AI would tell you that the results are pretty bland and average. I think the writing always has to be done by oneself. You can’t have it think for you. But yeah it’s a good tool for brainstorming, fixing sentence structure, and maybe give some alternate viewpoints to get you to think more.
I think it depends on how you use it. If you just ask it to write for you, I agree it’ll be average. But if you interact with it and build from that interaction, it feels more like an extension of thinking rather than a replacement.
Yeah. This is the idea I'm exploring deeply in part 2, which will be released this week only. Would love to have your thoughts on that please.
The art of the writing process has been traded for the art of efficiency.
Efficiency isn’t always a good thing though. For writing good, I think we need to sit with it, think deeply about it, get bored, let our minds rest, take a walk, read, etc etc. All of this is inefficient, but I think, these are all necessary parts of good writing. What do you think?
Taking an original thought and shaping it into something others can see and feel is truly beautiful. But in a world where attention spans have shrunk so much over the past few decades, it often feels like the writing process carries less weight for younger generations like Gen Z and Alpha (of course, not everyone).
Hmm. So many people tell me that people don't read longer stuff anymore and that I should move to video if I have to make an impact. However, I have this naive hope that people want to read and that more and more people will have reel fatigue and they'll want to read. I'm not sure how true that is. It's just how I like to think.
In a world like today, it’s now no longer just a competitive advantage to be able to think critically and creatively, it’s now needed for survival.
Couldn’t agree more. Thinking critically in these crazy times is a superpower. Sometimes, I do fear though that AI might take away a bit from this ability, especially when I think about my young niece.
Interesting thoughts. I can’t wait to read the next article!
I’ve been using ChatGPT as an editor and personal assistant. It’s my content but I upload it and tell it how I want it to edit it and how I want my feedback. It helps with strategy and organizing my writing as well as word smithing. It’s a great tool but I’ve found that I need to continuously set boundaries or it will do everything for me. It seems to perniciously want to do my writing for me.
Hahah, yeah that’s true. We need to consciously stop it from letting it do all the work. I have also found though that when it does the full writing for someone (or even half of it), it’s not that good.
This is unsettling for sure.
It's actually sad because nobody knows how to do anything anymore without some kind of assistance from AI. Younger generations don't even learn penmanship & cursive handwriting is an art from days gone by. I've used AI for help with my writing, but it's always mostly me. My thoughts, my words, my style. AI should be an editorial assistant, not the author.
Exactly. It should always be YOU writing. We want to see what you think through your writing.
Love this!
I’m glad this resonated. :)
This is such a complex subject. It's important to remember that just because we smack the label "artificial" in front of intelligence, doesn't change the fact that we are in uncharted existential waters.
Humans can't even fully define their own consciousness, let alone confirm or deny it in the context of machine learning.
Obviously, people who phone it in and aren't present are suffering losses of function. That seems a natural outcome of cognitive of absence and not necessarily the fault of AI, so much as a reasonable outcome of the practice itself.
This far, there's no comparable study on people who are using AI intentionally and with full presence. So it creates a false binary between use of AI and loss of function.
Obviously, don't outsource your intelligence-duh.
I'd also add that the reason writers and creators are using AI is die to the absolutely inhuman content density required by most platforms.
Writers aren't lazy. Their creativity is being exploited by tech that eats there ideas to train AI, ravages their industry, and charges them by the month to use a system trained on their unpaid labor.
It's a lot more complex than most headlines can encapsulate.
It is true that these AI companies use our content to train AI and then charge us for giving average output. The key is to understand that AI, for now, can’t think for itself and will always give an average of an answer. Only we have the the lived experience to actually feel stuff, process it, and then put it into words.
For me, writing is not only about how we think, but it’s also about how we show what we are thinking to others to make an impact. The impact could be the popping-up aha moments; it could also be the feeling of driving the action after that. AI can do this as well, given the ton of psychological theories. But the tone we have and the emotions we share would create a different connection with readers. Looking forward to reading part 2 to see how you connect it to AI.
Great to hear your thoughts. I think to really connect with readers, you have to speak from the heart.
Will definitely share my thoughts on AI regarding this. Stay tuned. :)