Disclaimer: this piece is not written using AI (artificial intelligence).
I can write this content. I know that I am a writer. Do I need to prove it?
Let’s be real. Almost every job requires being a good writer. Even with just a simple conversation on social media or an email, we always want it to sound professional for our clients and co-workers. But everything now, especially writing can be done by AI.
AI has become part of the internet and keeps on expanding. Students use it to study, talk to, or to cheat—but not everyone uses it the same way, or at all. People are different from one another. Some may want to explore the world of AI and its usage but there are still individuals who want to stick to the traditional way of studying, specifically writing.
I wonder if writers need to prove they are not using AI in their work?
When I was in university as a creative writing student, the idea of writing with the help of AI never crossed my mind. I always had these wild ideas that I thought I could only write using my own hands and words.
Most of the time I do prefer writing about what I have experienced in life. I know that no one could write it better than myself.
I consider myself a writer who writes in Filipino aiming for local readers. I never thought that AI could possibly help me in writing my works.
I write from my heart and soul. I write based on what I have known, what I have learned and what I have read.
But everything changed when I received a message saying my words sounded like they were written using AI. How could we possibly prove that we are not using AI?
Do we need to show them our browser’s history and let them see how we never searched an AI website? Do we need to send them a list of the articles and books that we have read to teach them how we learned these phrases and words? Do we really need to do these things to prove that we can write?
I am not arguing that AI has a bad influence on writing. I knew that it could offer a lot of help to other people including writers like me. What I want them to know is that before AI existed, there were already writers.
In today’s digital world, do writers possibly live without judgement or a doubt?
There are tools that can help detect whether a certain work was done using AI. But there is no way writers can prove they own their words even when they have spent all night in front of their computer typing each letter, revising every chapter, and rewriting their work.
When we think about it, it sounds unfair.
It is frightening how AI is developing. It has become a threat to writers. It could possibly replace every job on earth. There is no way we can escape this, we just have to adapt to it and accept that it has become a part of our lives.
But we should not forget how we used to live without these websites, applications, and devices. We lived in a very traditional way when writers wrote with their pens and papers and from the heart. When we used typewriters without the convenience of a screen. There was a time when we used to read on physical paper rather than share a link of an article just to be updated about what is happening around us.
How do people forget that writers still exist?
It is indeed a sad reality to know that there are individuals who think that every well-written piece or even an unfamiliar word was produced by AI. As if there was no room left for people aiming to produce an engaging work for their readers.
It made me worry for future aspiring writers like me. Will they be able to prove that they have writing skills and can write without the help of AI?
When will readers realize that comparing a well-written work with that done using AI will never be a compliment for a writer?
At this point, people need to know that an excellent work is not always equivalent to an AI-generated content. It may be a product of sleepless nights of crafting, reading, and researching, of someone trying to share their works with others.
Technology may keep on upgrading and expanding, and AI will always be there. But what we need to know is that its availability does not mean the presence of real writing will no longer be available for readers.
