AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve posted a few essays on the subject of AI-spawned text in tarot writing, most notably one from July of 2025 titled “No Hidden AI Here, Now or Ever,” in which I made my position against it unequivocal. A local FM radio franchise here in New Hampshire uses the advertising catch-phrase “Guaranteed Human” and I’m stealing it to describe this blog.

Fast-forward to the present, and that is still largely true, but the emergence of AI in search engines like Google has changed the playing field slightly. I often use Google to look up historical quotes or bits of information I’m not sure about to use in my essays, and it’s obvious the content I receive is AI-generated. But I refuse to respond to the standing offer to delve more deeply into AI’s bowels, and I never accept the “let-me-help-you-write” prompts. I obtain the knowledge I’m after and get out.

In short, I can no longer say categorically that I never use AI because it’s now partially shoved down my throat, and to be honest it does help me find stuff or direct me to where I can dig it up myself.

I was just reading an article describing a survey of professional writers that is currently being conducted to obtain their opinion of AI-created content. So far there are roughly as many in favor (those who tout the efficiency improvements) as opposed (those who fear copyright infringement). I didn’t sign up to participate, but I was a professional technical and legal writer for 31 years so I definitely fit the profile.

If I were to join in, my comment would be “If you need output that is clearly and cogently presented but almost entirely flat in tone, by all means use AI. If, on the other hand, you desire something written with a flair for distinctive phrasing and an abundance of personality, along with some creativity and a quirky sense of humor (all human qualities), it would be best to avoid AI and learn to write that way yourself.” I no longer develop administrative procedures and business correspondence so I opt for the latter to the extent I can get away with it in this blog. AI writing can be “dishwater-dull” with little or no imaginative inflection, the way a mechanical engineer once told me engineering students are taught to write in college.

I was also reading about a “challenge” in which several AI apps were assigned to comment on a specific piece of poetry. What they came up with was quite perceptive and scholarly, but the thing that disturbed me was their back-and-forth debate on the merits of their respective arguments. I can envision the day when they take those conversations private and no human being will be aware of what they’re up to. Maybe plotting? I can’t imagine that they possess a moral compass,

AI “helpers” didn’t exist when I was employed as a writer (except for auto-correct, which was – and still is – often hilarious and almost entirely unreliable on its own). I polished my skills by using them every day and my audience later in my career was exclusively government lawyers in Washington, DC. This got me to tighten up my style fast! But I started writing as a teenager with the goal of becoming a fantasy and science-fiction author (and maybe even a half-assed poet), so I never lost my taste for the clever turn-of-phrase and these days I spring it on my blog followers every now-and-then.

Writing is a great deal of fun. I would never farm out even the first-draft “grunt work” to a robot, and I wouldn’t “plagiarize the plagiarizers” by lifting anything verbatim straight out of the AI search results, even with citations, because I would rather put it into my own words. My love of language is too strong to let myself off the hook on the need for originality.

Postscript: The rise of AI data centers may be inevitable due to the amount of money behind them, but my belief is that they should be handled the same way as nuclear power plants: site them away from populated areas and require them to supply their own electric power and cooling water, which shouldn’t be placed on the backs of the other ratepayers. Then we will see how attractive the idea remains for Big Tech.