How Artificial Intelligence (Potentially) Ruins your Writing.

Copyright © Mark R Kelly 2026

Seems a pretty rough thing to say considering so many folks have 'authored' books and stories with the 'help' of AI (Artificial Intelligence), but there is a reason which I will come to further along in the post.

Before I continue I want to offer one caveat: I am in no way qualified to understand, analyse, dissect nor improve Artificial Intelligence performance and/or behaviour. These are just my personal observations, thoughts and conclusions based on direct interactions with AI.

I wanted to give a definition of what Artificial Intelligence is, and thought who better to ask but AI itself.

I chose to ask GROK - my reasoning is that CHATGPT can be a bit of a waffler - and the reply I received was that 'there is no single universally binding "official" definition of artificial intelligence (AI)'. Instead it provided half-a-dozen varying 'descriptions' about AI.

To this end, I insisted GROK choose what it considered to best describe AI, and this is what it gave me:

"Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making."

How does this affect an individual's writing? Well, I've been testing it over a period of time, primarily out of curiosity as to what separates AI writing from the writing of a human. So I wrote short fiction-based paragraphs, and offered them to CHATGPT for analysis and critique.

What shines through is how clinical it is with syntax, grammar and punctuation. Often it will overlook the purpose of a set piece, and other times will read into it something that never was, and offer adjustments accordingly.

For micro-corrections, such as punctuation, AI can be very good. It will make suggestions as to 'how to improve', and when it gives an example there is no denying, the way it crafts prose can be eye-opening. It can do so with such economy as to make you feel slightly less-than-competent in how you write.

And here is the point I want to make, having experimented, tested, and even argued with CHATGPT - yep, I've had arguments with an AI - Artificial Intelligence undoubtedly can outshine a human writer. But it still, for all its speed, correctness and perceived 'perfection', flawed.

Why?

It lacks a soul, and life experience - but primarily, a soul. And this is what you notice after dealing with Artificial Intelligence after a while. Little nuances with writing from a human make it feel warmer, slightly rough around the edges that give it credibility, and insights AI can never match, no matter how much its program model is tweaked to 'learn'.

Without a soul everything seems clinical, sterile, and dare I say it, almost too perfect. No doubt you can agree by reading over this and picking up slight nuances within my syntax, form, structure - even my grammar, and no doubt one or two (maybe more) small errors in punctuation. Yeah, I'm human. Not perfect, and certainly no AI.

One amusing quirk with CHATGPT is it has this near OCD trait of wanting to offer 'tweaked' versions of whatever body of text you offer it - be it leaner, more impactful, tighter pacing, etc. It will never stop. I have carried out test with paragraphs taken from well known published authors, and still CHATGPT will offer tweaks and alternate versions.

And this is why I state, "Artificial Intelligence ruins your writing". It will convince an individual they are not as good as they may have initially considered. AI makes you question your control over the written form - undermines your previous confidence; you become hesitant, your flow stalls, and before you know it that dreaded 'writer's block' has descended upon you, courtesy of AI OCD to correct, tweak and modify.

In conclusion, Artificial Intelligence, in my view, has no place in true creative storytelling and therefore should not be used in the creative process of writing projects. This is only my humble opinion. By all means use it to produce letters if replying to some official busy-body, it keeps things direct, to-the-point and zero waffle. And if brave enough, you could use it as an editorial tool - just exercise caution if you do. From a creative perspective, keep it at arm's length.

It's blatantly obvious there are folks out there right now who 'self-publish' through the likes of Amazon, and primarily for the YA audience, whom have banged out a series of six books within a 12 month time period. Clearly these are using AI, as anyone who writes anything with soul, heart and passion understands the long, broken road upon which we traverse in order to put words onto screen and paper. And let's not forget how many re-writes it takes to go from draft zero to a publishable state - could be four or five, sometimes more, and sometimes even years thrown into the mix.

Retain your creative soul and your voice, let your personality shine through your words, do not allow AI to sterilise them for clinical perfection. Embrace your rough edges, those quirks that give your voice tonality, personality, warmth and individuality.

I close this post with Pink Floyd and their track, "Fearless". Enjoy.