Author’s views on AI for writing and publishing.

I do not use AI or any other tools to generate text. I do not use it to write emails or pitches. I do not use AI to “bounce ideas off of.” I do not use it to brainstorm, generate ideas, or to critique my thoughts or words, nor the work of any other writer. I do not use it to outline, plan, or otherwise structure my work. I do not use it for editing, and I do not use Grammarly. I do not use it to fix or clean up or change or otherwise style my writing. This is both true of my fiction and any nonfiction (like you would see on my Substack.) I do not use it on my Substack to come up with article ideas, to optimize SEO or whatever, to create Notes, etc.

Where I do use AI: 

I use AI to write code- specifically Python and Xcode in order to create applications— none of these applications are for text generation or otherwise outsourcing the thinking or creativity that underlies writing or the actual work of creating sentences, characters, or plots. This started with my wanting to create an app that authors could use to prove that they do not use AI to generate text. You can read about this app here, and it is available for free for any writers who want it. I disclosed that I used Claude to code it (I didn’t have to but I did) and this made some people angry. My logic is that I was using the tool that screwed writers to help writers. I also felt that I did not want to be out here in public waxing philosophical about AI without really understanding what it is; my suspicion is that people using it for stupid things (ie, writing wedding vows) is distracting the conversation from really intelligent uses (ie, interpreting the complex results of electrocardiograms) which is where we should be having the discussions about the complex tradeoffs of using AI.