AI Pits Machines Against God

As much as I would like to ignore artificial intelligence (AI), its presence is like the 500-pound canary that casts a deep shadow over the room. Especially in the world of writing and editing. In recent times, I have encountered:

• An author looking for editing of a book originally published in Russian; he used AI to handle the translation to English.
• Another author who used AI to help him organize some difficult theological concepts for his book on Christian parenting.
• A self-publishing executive who told me of dismissing an editor after learning she had used AI to do her work. The shoddy results almost cost him the client. So now he asks every ghostwriter or editor he talks to about their use of not-necessarily-intelligent AI.

So the question isn’t whether AI will get involved in editorial products; it’s a question of how much. The trouble is it’s not always easy to detect who has used AI and who hasn’t. In one of my freelancers’ groups, a writer told of being accused of using AI when in fact it was her work.

Suspect Reply

Then there was the author who told me he had decided to hire a different editor for his memoir “after careful consideration.” That response came less than 20 minutes after I emailed him my suggestions on a sample chapter.

I just took him to be a bit flaky. Then another editor I mentioned the exchange to said she thought the reply smacked of being written by AI.

It was something I hadn’t considered. On further reflection, I thought that indeed may have been the case, since the sample chapter I reviewed consisted of a long string of one-sentence paragraphs.

According to Google, that is a telltale sign of AI. So are such features as uniform paragraph lengths and disconnected thoughts that lack narrative momentum or natural transitions. Or, as I heard an AI-generated voice say recently on a smartphone: “I am not human, so I cannot feel.”

Another telltale sign is the overabundance of hyphens in many authors’ work. Nothing wrong with hyphens—I love them—but when used constantly, they grate on one’s nerves. They are similar to writers who love to punctuate sentences constantly. If everything is exciting, then nothing is exciting.

A Call to Arms

Given this state of affairs, I encourage all authors, editors, and would-be authors to answer this call to arms and write or edit to your heart’s content. Use the natural intelligence, reasoning ability, and emotional depth our Creator breathed into you, and put them to good use.

Now, one would be foolish to discount the value AI brings to the table. I have found it superior for research and use an AI grammar checker.

Others have employed it to organize disjointed material into a coherent presentation, often with colorful illustrations added. Last year, a robot performed complex surgery without human help.

I must say I lost some of my innate animus towards AI when I heard about the 89-year-old man who was rescued in the desert by Las Vegas police, thanks to drones spotting him.

And yet, when you boil the situation down to its essence, I see AI pitting a manmade solution against God’s crowning creation: humans. When it comes to creative endeavors, I’ll choose men and women every time. Not because they are perfect, but because they are God-created, God-driven, and God-inspired.

So, to any newbie writer contemplating plunging into freelancing, go for it. You have a greater Power on your side.