What the two of us have in common.

In last week’s blog post, I called myself out for becoming too dependent on AI in my writing. While I will still use various “other brains” for proofreading and grammar refinement (skipping the 5th grade leads to various holes in grammarian knowledge), ChatGPT and others will no longer suggest topics, provide outlines, or come up with clever quips to fill my word quota.

It looks like my post has been inspirational to other writers. Today’s New York Times features a Guest Editorial by Colson Whitehead. The title of the Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction writer’s piece: Don’t Use A.I. to Do This. The “this” in question? Creating. As Mr. Whitehead says:

Write the piece, not the prompt.

Of course, the author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys says it a lot more elegantly and humorously than I ever could. In his defense of creativity, he blends in references to Dostoevsky (yes, I had to look up how to spell the name), Edgar Allan Poe (did not have to look up), and the intro to Law and Order. Even with the help of 6th-generation super-advanced AI, I don’t think I could accomplish that particular weave. I don’t even think that Donald Trump could.

I’m glad to know, or at least hypothesize, that my post inspired an author who has been listed for every existent literary prize since the invention of the printing press to write his essay. Or at least to know that great minds think alike.

Mr. Whitehead will go back to writing all his great novels, and I’ll continue my somewhat shorter blog posts. As for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and all their kin? Go write some code and leave us creators alone!