Why I Will Never Use AI To Write Content

I have been using AI a lot at work.

Over the past six months or so, my company has given us all access to various AI tools and gently encouraged us to play around with them.

I took that as an opportunity to get noticed. I’ve been immersing myself in AI in order to figure out how to improve processes at my company. I even won an award for it!

This might seem a little surprising to you guys since you all know I dislike most forms of modern technology. But my venture into the world of artificial intelligence is almost completely self-serving.

I am in marketing. Anyone who is familiar with this line of work knows that marketers LOVE to “find the number”! Marketers love to spend hours manipulating pivot tables and scouring reports in order to “find the number”. We love to show our bosses just how BUSY we are! If we need a response rate or a projected budget number or something, we can’t just slap a reasonable percentage on it and call it a day. Oh, no! We need to labor over finding the exact, precise number, down to the thousandths, even if that number was largely fabricated using outdated data, best guesses, and “gut” feelings.

But after all of that work, we marketers love to point at the number and go “There it is! Aren’t you proud of me?”

What comes back to us is the inevitable “Ok, but what are you going to DO with that number?”

And at that, we are completely caught off-guard.

“What are you talking about? I spent all my time finding this number! I didn’t have any time to think about what to DO with it!”

Ridiculous right? Isn’t it a little backwards? Shouldn’t we spend the majority of our time using the number we found to improve things?

Still, though, there are people who thrive in this environment. They thrive in being busy rather than being productive. We all have processes in our jobs that are boring, time-consuming, and tedious. But we muddle through and get the work done, because that’s how it’s been done forever.

That’s where I have been applying AI.

Basically, I have been using AI to complete the stuff that I hate. All the stuff I don’t want to do, I dump into AI. It doesn’t always work and there are things that are not suited for it. But the more I use it, the more I think about ways it can be implemented in more aspects of my day.

I want to be productive; I don’t want to be busy.

Since I’ve had AI on the brain the last few months, I began to think about how I would apply it to this site.

Spoiler alert: I won’t. Not now. Not ever.

This site will never feature AI-generated content.

According to Google’s AI, more than half of blog posts these days are written by AI, with some estimates as high as 74%! It also says that by 2026, which is… *checks watch*… NOW, upwards of 90% of online content will be AI-generated.

Talk about scary!

But this site will never be included among those percentages because I will never use AI to generate my content. Certainly not in full, but also not even in part.

I read an article by another blogger who talked about AI transparency. Basically, he argued that using AI to generate content, especially in part, isn’t problematic as long as you state it clearly, in a footer or something, so that your audience is aware.

He argued that it’s ok to use AI as a sort of writing assistant, provided you disclose it. It’s ok, according to him, if AI helps you with idea generation or sentence structure or layout, because the author is the one providing all the prompts and is the ultimate decision-maker.

But let’s take a step back.

Imagine I told you that I completed a marathon. You’d be impressed, right? Now, imagine I told you I completed a marathon, but I used a Vespa for part of the way.

It’s ok, really! I only used it for the hard bits! I only used it when there was, like, a hill, or when it got really hot out! But I still finished the marathon so it’s basically the same thing, right?!

See how absurd that sounds?

Using AI for content, even if it’s only to “help” is basically cheating. It’s cutting corners. You can’t call yourself a writer if you use it.

Part of what is so appealing about reading someone’s work is knowing that they went through the “process”. That process is hard. It’s sometimes a little messy. Its progress is non-linear. But that process is what produces something special.

There are times I stare at my blank Word document without the slightest clue about how to begin an article. There are times I need to take a break for a day after writing for hours so I can revisit a topic with a clear head and fresh ideas. There are times I finish an article and sit back with a satisfied smile, knowing I created something special. Other times I drearily post something at midnight that I feel isn’t close to my best work, simply because I need to hit my deadline after struggling for days to write something coherent and even then it still doesn’t quite hit the mark that I wanted it to.

This site is a reflection of countless hours spent NOT doing other things, like playing with my kids or talking with my wife. I do it because I like to; it’s a form of self-care, since I like writing (especially about clothes). But it’s definitely a sacrifice, on some level, to create something that I hope is as meaningful to others as it is to me (if only a little).

Part of what I feel is special about this site is the fact that it’s so personal.

I write about my kids. My marriage. My dad. My hopes, fears, and insecurities. I’ve definitely gotten choked up and had to take a break while writing certain articles. I’ve happily pictured my sons, one day, reading this site and feeling a closeness to their dad that I never felt to mine.

Some of my articles are good. Some aren’t. But they’re all real. They are all me.

And that’s what I want when I read OTHER people’s sites, too! I don’t want some bland amalgamation of millions of people’s opinions on a certain topic. No, I want THAT PERSON’S opinion even if it’s presented a little messily.

Perhaps they aren’t the best writer. Perhaps their points are a little muddled or the topic meanders a bit. Could AI have helped them streamline what they wanted to say? Sure. But it wouldn’t have been THEIR voice. It wouldn’t have been them.

I want to know that someone sat down at a computer, thought up what they wanted to say (in their own brain), and banged out the words on their keyboard. That takes time. That takes concentration. That takes dedication. That takes thought and care. That takes sacrifice.

As the internet becomes increasingly flooded with more and more AI-generated content, you can be sure that this site will always be an oasis of real, sometimes messy, human-generated content created entirely by me.

AI should be used to smooth out inefficiencies. Yes, I’ll use it to arrange screenshots in a 50-slide Power Point deck. Yes, I’ll use it to calculate budget numbers. Yes, I will use it to look up specific items across 20 different files.

But writing is not an inefficiency. Creating is not an inefficiency to be smoothed out, optimized, or made quicker or easier.

The internet needs more real voices, real ideas, and real opinions.

It needs more real people.