What is AI? AI is artificial intelligence which simulates human intelligence processes by the use of computers or machines. Some argue it has great value in writing the mundane, like blog posts, ad copy, and such. The computer is fed a collection of writing which it uses to create a document.

I was recently in an online Zoom chat, and AI came up. Half the room argued that they use it like a thesaurus or a prompt or to get ideas on how to write better. They lean on it when they are at a loss for words. I get finding a word in a thesaurus, on occasion. I struggle with finding phrases, paragraphs, or more like anyone else. Bust I test myself to the nth degree to dig myself out of a hole before I seek assistance. I learn better and retain longer from those efforts.

Here lately, I’ve received a lot of submissions, many from the other side of the world from the United States, and they sound vaguely robotic. What I used to call theoretical and too academic is fast becoming suspicious for being AI. Several topics are routinely pitched to me, and its amazing how similarly they are worded. Not exact, mind you, because I check for plagiarism, but similar while saying the same thing. You’d be amazed at how many ESL writers use AI to make up for their limited English.

So I started adhering strictly to the guidelines at www.fundsforwriters.com/submissions. The pieces need anecdotes, personal experiences, links, and voice. The bio has to list the writer’s online presence (that wasn’t created just two weeks ago) so I can confirm who they are. And I refuse to deal with a broker who handles a stable full of writers. The second a submission smells like AI, is the instant that writer is blocked from future submissions.

I follow a newsletter that belongs to a site called PlagiarismToday, and I enjoy their posts. A recent one is titled, 3 Simple Ways to Detect AI Writing, and while this piece is directed at academia, it makes sense to all writing assignments. While I don’t use the first two detection methods, I apparently am doing the third, Creating AI-Resistant Assignments. AI can only use what is in its data set. So if I’m asking for personalized experiences and anecdotes, AI does not necessarily compute.

As you can tell, I am not an AI fan. I’m sure things will get worse before they get better with this tool, but the answer to it as of the current day is this:

Write like an individual.
Develop your unique voice.
Use material that nobody else would.
Use experiences nobody else has.

Turns out AI is going to make writers have to be more creative in their work, and I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing.

“Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.” – Edward R. Murrow

“The most original authors are not so because they advance what is new, but because they put what they have to say as if it had never been said before.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I’ve been told that AI is a tool no different than a thesaurus. Well . . . you shouldn’t get ultra-dependent upon a thesaurus either. The harder you have to think, create, and write, the deeper you write, the better you get, the more unique you become. And surprise . . . the more sales you make.