Publisher’s note: Let’s have a hearty welcome back for Vince Mao. His writing is all about real life and real writing. He’s fun, funny, philosophical, and so worth reading. Today, Vince tells you about his declaration of independence from his AI editing bot. Breaking up is not that hard to do!
Tailor-made for whom?
I read the final edit that I got from my AI assistant on one of my recent pieces. It sounded structured. Tight. It had a punch.
I didn’t like it.
I’ve been using AI to provide feedback and tighten my writing, my flow, and improve on my delivery of my ideas. It’s been amazing. Wonderful. Exhilarating. Humbling. There’s just one problem with all the tailoring…
It feels a size too large.
It’s like I tried to stuff myself into the mold of a writer and attempted to “grow into it”. Sure, it was a great read, but it had no personal touch. It wasn’t me at all. But the AI assured me that it was “publish-ready”. After several rounds of editing, I realized that I needed to just let go and be myself.
People want to consume the true essence of being human.
What I’m reminded of with using ai rewrite tools
Yes, my work lacks cohesion at times and is overly verbose in others, but after ironing them out, the AI suggestions become repetitive and formulaic.
The catch? One size fits all isn’t really my style.
Don’t get me wrong, there are great ideas and tighter ways to express my thoughts, but they don’t sound like me. Eloquence and word economy do have their place, and there’s a certain rhythm to me that I don’t want AI to edit out. It feels like I went through a hot press and came out with way more starch than necessary.
So I ignore its suggestions past a certain point. It whines and complains in subsequent revisions, but it’ll get over it.
For example, when the feedback starts to suggest something insightful or impactful, but it's devoid of my personality and my humor, I’ll opt to leave it in. Also, I don’t directly cut and paste suggestions (though it loves to ask if I’d like that version). I find ways to express or expand the point and go from there.
No matter how wonderful it is to have a virtual assistant in the dead of night, don’t forget that your unique voice is one that needs to be heard, not filtered through a large language model that will dollar-cost average your work for mass consumption.
You must make a choice in the craft: bland but palatable or spicy but remarkable?
Above all else, remember…
AI is supposed to help you—not BE you.
(And yes, I chose to use that em dash…NOT AI.)
So if you’ve noticed that some of my recent work has been a bit sterile (neutered), then congratulations…you’ve caught something that I nearly forgot in my pursuit of polished perfection. This piece (if you made it this far) is my “grilled cheese sandwich” reset.
Simple. Authentic. Mine.
Tell me, what weird or amusing surprises have you discovered in your explorations of this technology?
Vince Mao is a prolific and entertaining writer, and one of our favorite guest writers. Show him some support!
AI never gets the nuances that give life to writing. AI is great for jump starting the bones of an idea but those bones need the skill of a writer for their meat.
Sterile - great word to describe AI writing. I've graded a few college essays this week that are heavy AI, and I told the students that they sounded like something out of a textbook with zero recognizable personal voice.
They need a reset, too! Thanks for sharing this article.