The only point of writing is to provide value to the reader¹. That’s it. Teachers only read your work because they are paid to do it. Do you think they would read the mangled essay you wrote the night before if they weren’t paid to do it? I define success in writing as providing enough value that teachers would pay to read my writing.

The problem is, it seems like I can not write without the help of AI anymore. This especially matters in school because now I don’t know what is cheating, what is my work, and what is my skill. I argue that it’s not about whether every word came out of your virgin brain, it is about whether you provided value to the reader.

Some people say, “Aw that was so easy, I could have done it” or “An AI could have done that.” But I retort, “If it’s so easy, then why didn’t you do it already?” I believe that everyone has value to provide, and AI is just being used to realize that value. Readers don’t give a damn about the author bleeding all over the page, they care about whether you made an impact on them.

When you complain, “But I want to know a human wrote it,” you’re asking the wrong question. It’s not about human vs AI, it’s about good vs bad. A great personal essay brings out who you are. A generic AI essay doesn’t.

Nothing would have happened without you. Sure, the screenwriter wrote the script, but who directed it and put it together? When I force myself to not use AI and become helpless, I fear I am losing the fundamental skill of creating something from nothing. But this fear only exists when we refuse help. When we shift to the perspective of providing value, we become the architect doing everything it takes to make it happen. Your work becomes the sum of your choices: your drive to make it happen, you drawing the lifeblood out of you, and your taste and discernment in the final product.

Of course, this only applies right now. We exist in a narrow window of time where AIs can help us write better, and we can still improve the writings of AI. This may not always be the case. In the future, AI could write better than you ever can. But for now, do whatever it takes to make an impact on your reader.