Words, to me, have always been a pleasure to write. No matter how long or short the task, I derive so much enjoyment from written expression.

I take the time to write meaningful birthday cards because I see more value in a meaningful card than an expensive gift.

Loved ones tell me that when I share a story about my day or a personal experience, it is apparent that I am a writer.

Even the way I respond to text messages, write work emails, or take notes following an important meeting or appointment – reflect the significance of words in my life.

Hence, my honest disdain for Chat GPT.

Whenever I hear anyone mention how useful they find using this artificial intelligence service, I feel a combination of disappointment and disgust, to be frank.

Whilst I hold no judgement towards the individuals themselves, my feelings are more reserved towards the direction I feel that society has gone.

A direction far from positive. At least from where I am standing.

You see, when I write, I write with emotion, with genuine feelings, with thoughts structured such in a way that reflect the way I process thought, the way I express myself. My thoughts are a reflection of who I am and how I think.

When we give that power to someone else, to something else – we take away the human element that makes us who we are, we take away our creativity and critical thinking to articulate our thoughts.

One could argue – what about ghost writers? Copy writers? Speech writers, even? Should they too, be lumped into the same group?

It is certainly a complex issue and I will be admit, an issue that isn’t truly black and white.

But my rebuttal to this question would be an experience I had during Year 12. Almost two decades ago. My friends and I were studying for our English exam in the library. Knowing that I was getting straight As, my friend insisted he look through my notes for the exam. Rather than attempt to write his own, he insisted that he see mine first because he wanted to copy them.

When I declined, he sulkily replied:
“Why are you always like this? It shouldn’t be a competition.”

17 year old me knew I’d made the right decision but 36 year old me now truly knows why.

Whilst I love to write, whilst I love to express myself through written words – it is still work for me. It still takes effort. It still takes time for me to progress from what I want to say to what I actually say.

When we allow someone or something else to assist us in the thought process, we aren’t allowing ourselves the opportunity to learn to improve on our ability to express our thoughts.

Rather than taking the time to reflect on what we want to say and how to say it – we so quickly request the help of a service that lacks the emotion and conviction we feel when we know why we feel the way we do.

Chat GPT might be able to write half decent cover letters. Chat GPT might assist us in making our work emails sound more professional. Chat GPT might assist us in crafting emails that articulate our thoughts more succinctly. Chat GPT might take some of our initial work and just sharpen it up.

But the most powerful meaningful words are ones where we believe in what we have to say.

A memorable birthday card is one written with personal experiences, memories and from a place of true love.

A euology written by a loved one who has just lost their partner will touch more lives because it will evoke raw emotion.

An assignment written with your thoughts, your analyses and your research means you have actually done the hard work necessary to earn that mark.

Any task, any piece of work, any piece of writing – should not just be about getting the work done within the shortest time.

Life should never be so busy that we are always looking for the easy way out, for someone or something to complete a task for us.

We should be able to take pride that we have single handedly worked through a task ourselves, that we have expressed ideas with our genuine thoughts, that we have put in the hard yards to reach the end goal.

School teachers are taking active steps all the time to ensure students are given less opportunity to use Chat GPT and instead, to complete assignments in class time. This is a direction I am completely on board with.

What are we teaching the future generations of tomorrow if we don’t fully complete our own work and choose to take credit for it instead?

What are we really learning when half of the work is completed for us?

Like my 13 year old self thought when I found out my friend’s boyfriend had gifted her a so-called “personal” poem he had copied from the internet – claiming work as your own is cheating, it is dishonest and just doesn’t have the value it would if it were authentic.

Writing, just like most skills – can be improved on, practised and learnt. If we take away the opportunity to repeat these skills and build upon them, where does it leave us?

So whilst I know that not everybody loves writing birthday cards like I do, they may not enjoy writing work emails or may struggle to articulate themselves in text messages – I challenge everyone to continue writing anyway, to keep on practising these skills, to continue being authentic with what you have to say.

AI services like Chat GPT won’t cease to exist any time but we can make the choice everyday not to use them. Instead, to opt in instead to taking the time to process our own thoughts and articulate our own genuine feelings.

Along the journey of doing so, we might just discover that putting our own thoughts to paper is not as difficult as we think.

That the most meaningful impact we can have comes from a place of authenticity, from the heart, from the belief that if we believe in what we have to say then others will believe in our words too.