Hi, I’m Natalie, and today I’m doing something unusual: writing this blog myself, from scratch, in a Word Document. I’ve got to tell you, this feels archaic. No, not in a bad way, more like in a nostalgic way, I guess.

I run a business that, among other things, helps people set up and use AI in their work. So you might expect this blog post to be churned out by Claude or ChatGPT, polished by me, and done and dusted in fifteen minutes. Well, not this time.

Are people not doing it this way anymore? Am I wasting my time? Am I so arrogant to think that I can write better than a machine that has learnt from all the writing in the world?

These are the questions swirling around my head. But I’m ignoring my intrusive thoughts for the moment, because I just genuinely want to see how I write naturally and I’m slightly worried that I’m going to lose the ability to write things using my own brain. I’m not trying to sound dramatic here, I just increasingly find myself reaching for the “easy” route of using AI to create and my brain to edit. And it’s making me worry, because, what if I’m relying on AI because I “can’t” write anymore? English was one of my favourite subjects at school, and I really used to enjoy writing, even essays and reports. So, what’s happened? I’ve always believed that creating (whether that’s writing, painting or anything else) is like a muscle that you have to exercise. Otherwise, it’ll get lazy, weak and a bit useless. And yet, I very rarely write something myself from scratch and I guess I’m noticing the skill diminishing in me. All is not lost though, I’m here now, trying to rebuild that skill.

The Slop Problem

The other thing nudging me here is what's happening on socials. I’ve been spending more time there recently (obvs trying to grow my presence and promote my business) and it seems nearly everyone is using AI to write their copy or posts. And with everyone opting to use AI, I can see individuality slowly morphing into one, big, homogenised glob of robotic, formulated slop. When people actually write, themselves, it’s messy, it’s raw, you can hear the emotion behind it and it’s far more compelling. Personally, I think people are so terrified of posting the “wrong” thing or “rambling” or not posting a keyword-rich, engaging post, that they put their faith in the technology because it’s a safe-bet. And maybe in the short term, it is. Hmmm, I guess we will see. But already it’s noticeable that those who lean heavily on AI-written posts and content are struggling to connect with the people they want to.

Yes, well done, you’ve posted 3-4 times this week, but how many people have you truly resonated with?

The Treadmill

There's also a question worth asking about the volume itself. Is the constant pressure to post, the post-every-day-or-die thing, the actual reason people end up reaching for AI in the first place? Probably. It's the only sustainable way to keep up with a treadmill that's running too fast. Let’s not even talk about the graphics people are generating using AI too, because, as we all know, image-based content gets waaaaaay more engagement. Random side note for you: apparently in late 2023, AI produced over 15 billion images in roughly one year - a total that took approximately 150 years for human photography to reach (1826–1975). I wonder how many of the AI ones were actually good though. I bet you most were people messing about.

Anyway, back to writing: from my own experience, AI isn't great at mimicking my tone of voice anyway. I spend longer tweaking and editing what it's generated than I would have spent just writing it myself, from my mind (or heart). Which is partly why I'm here, in Word, doing it the slow way. How very inefficient of me.

Philosophical, not hypocritical

To be clear, I'm not anti-AI, I’m absolutely pro using it as a tool to assist but maybe we can all be a bit more mindful. There's a version of AI use that's genuinely brilliant: as a thinking partner, a research assistant, an editor, a tool for the bits you don't have time for. What I'm wary of is the version where it becomes the only voice everywhere and replaces the innate diverse and variable nature of human creativity. Where the human being behind the business doesn’t come through, and what's left is a brand-shaped blob saying brand-shaped things.

So this is me, writing in Word, badly probably, but giving it a go.

If you wrote something yourself this week, just know: that’s pretty impressive and I want to thank you for taking the time to write from your heart.