My writing has been cited in books by Oxford University Press and De Gruyter. It’s been published in journals. And, this year, my seventh book will be published.
I’ve also edited the writing of other people. (And most of it wasn’t pretty.)
In an Age of AI, writing will be the most essential skill for success.
It’s not just me saying this.
AI and Writing
A lot of people think that AI can replace their writing (e.g., emails). But, recently, Poh-Shen Loh said (correctly) that writing is more important than ever, now that AI has emerged.
To use AI effectively, you have to be able to write effectively.
Loh is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He specializes in “Combinatorics (the study of discrete systems), Probability, and Computer Science.”
“The power of the Large Language Model [LLM] is the ‘L’; the ‘language’,” Loh has observed.
The processing of any AI program is only going to be as good as the thinking of the person working with it.
“All of these skills like reading and writing, communication, logic,” Loh says, “these are all going to be very important [with AI] because these are how you develop a good way to think.”
AI is a Mirror
Loh notes that many students are now using AI to write their papers, rather than thinking through the subject and writing their papers for themselves.
He compares this to deciding to go for a run (to get fit) and then getting in a car and driving instead. Driving can’t make you fit. Drive everywhere, instead of walking or running, and you’ll become less fit.
Similarly, relying on AI to think for them, students are rendering themselves incapable of deep and complex thought.
Not only will this make them less intelligent, it will make them much less effective with AI.
Instead of AI being an incredible tool for deep thought, they will depend on it for basic thinking (and won’t be able to recognize when it’s wrong).
AI is Here: Learn to Write
If “learn to code” was the mantra of the last two decades, “learn to write” should be the mantra now.
Writing isn’t a pastime.
It isn’t putting one word after another.
It’s thinking.
It’s precision.
And in an Age of AI… it’s quality of results.
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