You open your email and see a message from someone you don’t know well, asking for your opinion or response. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that the sender used AI to generate the email.
Your email software offers an AI-generated suggestion for a response. It seems okay and you don’t have a lot of time, so you accept it and go on with your day.
The recipient now sees the response. Their email software suggests a response that sounds good, so they accept it.
Do you see what’s happening? We’re hiring the bots to talk to each other — and perhaps ceding our humanity in the process.
Is this the best use of the massive, world-changing (and possibly climate-damaging) power of AI? Replacing human communications in trivial matters? Removing the possibility of an actual glimmer of real connection?
What’s happening to writing?
In case you think this sounds far-fetched, I receive a dozen or more AI-generated spam emails every week offering me detailed book marketing plans and book club appearances. How many of your emails are likely AI-generated?
Of course, people have legitimate reasons to use AI to draft emails… beyond creating targeted spam at scale. AI can be a real boon for people working in a foreign language, or who have difficulty writing for various reasons.
A friend with a straight-talking, direct manner tells me she runs her initial responses to her colleagues through AI before sending them to make them nicer. In that case, AI supports better communication.
But it’s tempting to default to AI when we don’t want that mental lift of writing yet another email. Applications practically forcing AI-generated text on us makes the temptation stronger.
Do I really need advanced technologies to write, “Yes, 2:30 on Tuesday works for me?” No.
I am fortunate that I can type easily and not so precious about optimizing my time on this planet that I can’t take a moment to type a few words.
What’s your position?
Here’s the hill I’ll fight for: Writing is, at its core, human communication. If we give it up, we sacrifice a slice of our humanity—and that damages us and the people with whom we are theoretically connecting.
I’m not a never-AI person, nor do I mean to question your choices. I’ve written a chapter about that in the latest edition of The Writer’s Process. I’ve even let it write for me, in very specific circumstances. (Not my blog posts or books, though. This is all me.)
Instead, I’m a never-default-to-AI person. Use it when needed, with intention, and without replacing thinking. Using AI in your writing should be an intentional choice.
That’s why the AI-on-by-default makes me crazy. I want to shout at the “Want help from AI?” prompt shoved in my face repeatedly on every social platform—or worse, the already-written response. Sometimes the written response mirrors what I might have answered, which simply bugs me more. So I change my wording just to prove it wrong.
Cling to your choices!
We always have a choice, even if we feel like we’re swimming against the currents. And the AI currents are strong right now.
The choices we make affect the world around us.
We are distanced enough from each other online—we don’t need this one more layer automatically replacing the act of thinking of the other person and their needs and writing something for them.
I just finished reading Incorruptible by Eric Ries, and found it incredibly informative and inspiring. (This is a great example of the potential for a nonfiction book to make a real-world impact.) Near the end, Ries suggests we don’t have to hopelessly submit to the “gravity” of everything being extractive and awful. Every algorithm out there is analyzing our behavior. Every boardroom cares deeply about what people do and don’t accept.
As Ries writes,
The very people telling you that individual choices don’t matter are the same ones spending billions to influence those choices.
So, I resist — and figure out how to turn off the option for AI-generated responses. (It took me a shockingly long time to find how to turn off AI-generated suggestions in Gmail rather than simply cursing it daily.) Some applications don’t even offer the ability to disable AI by default.
I’m swimming against the stream, but the effort seems worth it. Join me if you want.
Bonus: Instructions for Gmail Users
If you use Gmail, here’s how to turn off those responses on the desktop:
- Click the settings icon (the Gears) near the top right of the screen.
- Click the See All Settings button.
- Scroll down to find the Smart Reply feature and turn it off.
Related Content
If you want to read my not-ranting take on fitting AI into the writing process, read chapter 13 in the latest edition of The Writer’s Process. I’d love to know what you think.
Read an excerpt from it here: One Question to Ask Before Using AI in Writing
