As a writer, editor, author and content marketer who has employed dozens of freelance writers for more than 10 years, I\u2019ve been unsurprised but disappointed to see many of my colleagues gleefully and thoughtlessly pry open the Pandora\u2019s box of artificial intelligence writing tools.<\/p>\n
AI is to white collar workers what mechanical automation was to blue collar workers. When factory employees lost their jobs to the automatic assembly line, there weren\u2019t any new jobs waiting for them, nor was there sufficient government assistance or training programs. AI may be inevitable, but we shouldn\u2019t accelerate our demise by embracing the tools and rationalizing their consequences.<\/p>\n
Here are some summaries of problematic attitudes I\u2019ve seen on LinkedIn during the past few years. These aren\u2019t real quotes. I\u2019m not trying to call out specific people.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a writer who has expressed or heard similar opinions, please read this article. I explain how reckless adoption of AI writing and editing tools nurtures a beast that will eventually take a bite out of us all.<\/p>\n
To my colleagues who build and manage AI tools, I\u2019m not necessarily blaming you personally. AI is not the root problem. We live in a late capitalist society that is not on track to obtaining a federal jobs guarantee, universal health care, updated minimum wage or reasonable wealth and corporate taxes. If we had these policies, AI would not be an immediate threat to millions of Americans.<\/p>\n
Here are my warnings. Ignore them at your own risk.<\/p>\n
The owners of AI companies are the only people in the world guaranteed to benefit from the increasing adoption of the technology. Like every other aspect of capitalism, you\u2019re unlikely to benefit from a boom if you don\u2019t own a share of it. Most owners are not going to share their newfound wealth with employees, especially writers who are viewed as disposable.<\/p>\n
The more you use AI tools, the more data centers will pop up across the country. Your usage increases demand, and data centers are the supply.<\/p>\n
These buildings and complexes have been destructive to many communities, especially places where people are already poor and struggling. Data centers increase electricity costs, pollution, traffic, accidents, noise and relocation.<\/p>\n
During my 10+ years as a managing editor, a significant part of my job has been negotiating rates with freelance writers. I have enough experience to tell how much time and effort someone has put into a draft.<\/p>\n
I pride myself on being generous. I have paid writers very high rates when they have consistently impressed me and demonstrated value.<\/p>\n
If I saw a subpar draft and found out the writer was relying on AI tools to save hours of time, while charging the same rate, I would consider ending our professional relationship. At the least I would ask them to either stop using AI tools or take a lower rate.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t accept the idea that SEO articles should be an exception. Well-written SEO articles should have all the thoughtfulness and journalistic qualities of investigative and opinion pieces. Adding these elements can help the articles rank by making them more shareable and easier to build links for. Me and my colleagues are going to write plenty of SEO articles on The Rauch Review, and we will not be including AI tools in the writing process.<\/p>\n
I have spoken with many editors who feel similarly. If you\u2019re a writer who is evangelizing AI tools, you\u2019re taking a gamble that you won\u2019t wind up with an editor like me. If you take that gamble and lose, your reputation could become tarnished.<\/p>\n
Sure, you could be transparent and announce ahead of time that your writing will be AI-generated and human-edited. I would appreciate the honesty. Then I would decline to work with you or offer you a lower rate.<\/p>\n
For full-time writers, I don\u2019t know if your boss will dock your pay for using AI, but they will<\/em> ask you to crank out an even higher volume of content. Many full-time writers are already pressured into producing up to 20 stories a week. I can easily see a boss using AI as a justification to demand double.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a stupidly simple question, but I haven\u2019t seen anyone candidly ask themselves this on LinkedIn. If an AI does the vast majority of your actual writing for you, are you still a writer? Aren\u2019t you an AI\u2019s editor? If you think the AI can produce something comparable to your authentic writing, why write at all?<\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen people rationalize this conundrum by claiming that editing their AI\u2019s work will keep their writing skills intact. It\u2019s true that editing can help you retain a bit of writing skill, even when you don\u2019t write for long periods of time. But editing doesn\u2019t help nearly as much as actual writing. When I have been at my peak performance as an editor, it\u2019s because I was writing consistently, and I\u2019ve seen the same situation with my peers.<\/p>\n I thought we became writers because we love writing. I hope I\u2019m right.<\/p>\n For those who value efficiency and money more than creating, there are much more lucrative careers than writing. Want to make bank by editing all day long? Try working in the legal world. It\u2019s OK for writing to be a hobby.<\/p>\n Like all professions, there are different social and economic classes of writers. Here\u2019s my perception of how these tiers were before the advent of AI writing tools:<\/p>\n Because people follow these writers for their idiosyncratic musings, AI cannot replace them. They often don\u2019t need day jobs.<\/p>\n This is the tier I\u2019ve been in for a while as part of my day job career. I\u2019m trying to move up into Tier 1.<\/p>\n I think AI will impact a lot of people in this tier. Most of these people can write better than AI, but many employers don\u2019t care about sourcing the best content.<\/p>\n Editors and content marketing people like myself have a better chance of surviving, but we are being replaced, too. AI can spit out mediocre content strategies, and that value is enough for some employers.<\/p>\n I know these people because several of my employers have forced me into situations where I had to hire them for dirt cheap on Upwork. One of my post-lockdown bosses wanted me to quickly manage the production of 100 articles at an average cost of $50 an article. I told him the quality would have to be low, and he said that was fine. He helped me find people on Upwork and across the web who would work for as low as $5 an hour.<\/p>\n During the process, I was horribly conflicted. It wasn\u2019t my way. I didn\u2019t want to do it. I felt like I was exploiting desperate workers, most of whom spoke English as a second language (ESL) and were difficult to communicate with. My editing work increased exponentially.<\/p>\n On the other hand, I was helping the most desperate class of writers put food on the table. Every time we corresponded, they expressed gratitude and asked for more work.<\/p>\n Based on my experience, AI can write about as well \u2014 sometimes better \u2014 than many of these low-skill workers. I\u2019m not trying to put them down. It\u2019s not their fault. I\u2019m only illustrating a sad, painful truth.<\/p>\n I predict that AI will nearly wipe out this class of writers. If employers can get the same results from an AI tool and then dump the editing work onto a full-time person who is happy to have a job at all, why would they pay hundreds of dollars a month for ESL writers? Surely there are AI writing product subscriptions that are cheaper.<\/p>\n Driven further into desperation, I\u2019m not sure what the low-skill ESL workers will do. I think many try writing so they can diversify their income streams. There are only so many low-wage jobs they can compete for at one time. Not everyone can buy a car and get in the rideshare game, or buy a bike and be a delivery person. With writing, the only expense is an internet connection. Writing is also a crucial income source for people with disabilities that prevent them from working physical labor gigs.<\/p>\n When it comes to this issue, I\u2019m harder on writers because we tend to digest more stories than non-writers. Here are some fiction and nonfiction books that warn of reckless advancements in AI technology:<\/p>\n Why are we risking this possible future? Why aren\u2019t we doing everything possible to prevent it?<\/p>\n Here are the steps I\u2019m taking:<\/p>\n I hope you\u2019ll join me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" AI is to white collar workers what mechanical automation was to blue collar workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[55,56],"class_list":["post-639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-ai","tag-being-a-writer"],"yoast_head":"\nIf You Don\u2019t Write, Are You a Writer?<\/h2>\n
AI Will Widen Class Divides Between Writers<\/h2>\n
Tier 1: Celebrity Mainstream Media and Independent Media Writers\/Authors With Big Followings<\/h3>\n
Tier 2: In-House and Freelance Writers\/Editors for Media Outlets and Brands<\/h3>\n
Tier 3: Low-Experience or Low-Skill Writers Who Are Often ESL<\/h3>\n
Have We Learned Nothing from All the Cautionary Novels, Films and Shows About AI?<\/h2>\n
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What Can We Do?<\/h2>\n
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