Avoiding AI
I haven't been writing using any form of generative AI since the year began.
As with most writers and creators, I've been sucked into the world of generative AI as they are fairly accessible and easy to use. Anyone can be a writer! Anyone can be an artist! Just like how "Anyone can cook!"
And as Remy said, "Anyone can. That doesn't mean that anyone should."
If we know what happened at the end, we know that the lesson is NOT to avoid dabbling in creative fields because what if we are no good and be shunned for being a moron? The main lesson is for us not to pass off aided-work as our own talent. It's a lot more acceptable if we just try and then admit we can't do it. Of course, a lot was at stake but it's better than waiting for things to blow up in our faces.
And it's not just in writing that I'm avoiding AI. I'm avoiding it in all facets of my life too. If I need answers to a query, I do what we've all been doing pre-AI: google searching or asking someone we know who might have had this specific experience. I go on youtube to look at tutorials. It's how I started sketching.
As I was scrolling (mindfully) on Instagram, I came across this poem by Lacey Ramburger. Other than the environmental and ethical concerns of AI, the biggest concern that should shake an individual to the core is how it's taking away our ability to just... be human.
Let me give an example for when I'm writing.
If you've been following some of my work and read almost everything, you can definitely see when something was drafted with AI. The articles are sleek and do not contain linguistic or typo errors. But it always feels lifeless when I read them. Even with a prompt such as "write in my tone of voice", AI seems to always override that for content.
Tone of voice is important because I want you to know that these ideas came from my head. Sure, I may read a book or watch a youtube video and then write based on those, but I did the reading or watching, I did the noting and thinking, and I want to make sure that when I write, you as a reader know that I did all that hard work.
"Writing compels us to think — not in the chaotic, non-linear way our minds typically wander, but in a structured, intentional manner."
- Nature Reviews: Bioengineering (2025)
Whenever I feed Generative AI my thoughts and ask it to synthesise and structure them for me, I'm not giving myself a chance to form my own thoughts and opinions on a subject matter. Even when I repeatedly ask it to ask me questions to answer, and it can use my answers to formulate a piece, something always feels off when I see the end result. I would usually take chunks of the content and edit it to fit my perspective.
But that's it, right? I'm just asking AI to write the bulk of it for me, and then I "personalise" it to make it my own. Problem solved.
No. Problem not solved.
Each time I have written something in the past pre-AI or since the start of the year, I have a vague structure in my head or on paper. But once I've written and my mind processes information as and when they come (asking questions as I write and re-read, looking for evidence to back my claims), sometimes I might find a different conclusion or way to write the paper or post.
For example, Winter Café Culture was initially planned to be written as a listicle, like 3 Months in France. However as I started writing and looked at my notes, I had a burst of creative flair that made me pivot to a more story-telling, imaginative structure. I wanted readers to have an immersive experience just by reading the work. Had I put it through generative AI with a command to "write a listicle" and give it my points, I wouldn't have come up with such a great post (if I say so myself).
Of course, I am nothing but a writer writing on my own personal blog so I'm not responsible to anyone above me, and I'm allowed to have a generous margin of error (I'm so sorry for all the typos and grammatical errors you have encountered). But that is the point, no? Even if this were my job, I have the responsibility to care for my audience, build trust with them and constantly improve my craft without AI.
And I have the responsibility to be human - mistakes and all.
Writing is thinking and thinking is hard. But we need to do the hard things to be able to continually improve.
References:
Writing is thinking. Nat Rev Bioeng 3, 431 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-025-00323-4