Writers are thinking about Artificial Intelligence a lot – understandably. The lovely (I’m a bit of a fangirl) Ben Rhodes, (I highly recommend Pod Save the World and Ben Rhodes Substack, both of which are free,) discusses AI in his recent post, ‘Why Write‘. He answers this question through describing the deep thinking that goes into composing an essay – the kinds of thought processes that increase understanding, to a level of awareness he could therefore not reach if AI were to write the essay for him.

Understanding

This need to understand is not exclusive to nonfiction writers. Former UK Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion, (again, I’m a fangirl – for his boundlessly generous energy that I experienced at Royal Holloway, for his commitment to equality, for his poetry…,) has said, ‘My wish to write a poem is inseparable from my wish to explain something to myself.’