With the rise of casual use of Generative AI software over the past year and a bit (has it really only been that long?), we've also seen a lovely little moral panic sweeping the nation(s).
Should we be using AI? Is it cheating? Is it being lazy? Is it ripping off millions of authors who actually had to work on something? Will it spawn a group of people who can't string a sentence together to save themselves?
The answer to every single one of those questions is "Yes... and no."
Ever since the Industrial Revolution (which was, as far as I'm concerned, a Bad Idea) we have been devising ways to get a machine to do the bulk of our work for us.
We replaced ourselves in the field with tractors (and then we replaced ourselves in the tractors with remote control and robots).
We replaced ourselves in the factories with rigs and jigs (and then with robots).
We replaced ourselves in the copyroom with printing presses, and then we replaced ourselves in the typing pool with computers... it was really only a matter of time before we replaced ourselves at the computers with robots.
Replacing ourselves with robots is just something we do. As our main industries moved from field to factory to office, where and how we replace ourselves moved with us.
Should we do it? Heck, we should probably still be tilling a field somewhere with a couple of oxen. Or at least making a cabinet out of actual wood with honest-to-god hand tools. And then we should be writing a letter with pen and paper to send to our friend who lives a 6 day journey from here.
We're not going to do that, though. We're going to use whatever tools are available to us. It behooves us to learn to use them well so we can make a quality product.
Every time we invent a new tool to do the "heavy lifting" for us, we deskill ourselves in the old ways. We could keep whining about that, or we could just accept that this is what we do, and make a point of learning to use the new tools in a way that keeps us actively engaged in the quality control of the process.
Oh, and have a secret enclave of people who can still write actual sentences with their own brains and hands, for when the solar flare (or the cyber-terrorist EMP) wipes out technology and we need to rebuilt society after the resulting apocalypse. Basically, writing is going to become like knitting and woodwork - a quaint little hobby that will eventually save the human race.
Not that we're worth saving.
The important thing with using a tool that replaces us intellectually is that everyone is on the same page with this – we need to ensure no one reads something written by a machine and assumes a human wrote that.
Eventually, it will be assumed that all copy was written by a machine unless otherwise noted (just like we assume everything we use was made by a machine, even though the vast majority of the things we touch in our lives are still "handmade" by actual people in factories. Very, very poorly paid people in very, very unsafe factories...), but at this point in our evolution it's still the other way around.
So, for now, we still need to insist that any use of Generated AI is "permitted and admitted" – you don't use it when you were told not to, and whenever you do use it, you outline/admit to what you used it for.
