I help thought leaders and aspiring authors DO THE THING already--write the book that will exponentiate your reach and change the game.
AI books make my soul hurt. π
Published about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 1 min read
I see a lot of books where the author has used AI to write.
I can always, always tell.
Maybe not at first. But by three pages in (usually much sooner)--it's obvious.
These books bum me all the way out.
They feel like a betrayal. With books, that is the ultimate shame.
Know why? Because books = a huge opportunity to BUILD trust with your audience.
Books are hard! They're supposed to be. When you write a book, you're giving your life force.
You're clarifying your thinking. Distilling your experiences. Being vulnerable. Writing a book is a transformative process. You are not the same person at the end as you were at the beginning.
On the other hand, your reader is investing their life force in reading your book. Reading is ACTIVE. It requires focus and concentration.
You writing the book + your reader reading the book = the two of you forging an invisible, enduring connection. AI writing breaks that trust.
Me when I realize I'm reading work generated by an LLM, not a human brain.
AI in books is not the same as AI usage in an image or video--though to be clear, those bum me out, too. I immediately lose trust in the brand when I see AI-generated images.
But it's even worse in books because reading is so much more active than simply viewing images on a screen. So when you're dedicating your time to taking in someone's work, and then you realize THEY haven't taken the time to refine that work with human thought...
It's a betrayal.
I've got more to say on this topic, specifically on this question: "But isn't using AI the same as using a ghostwriter?"
The short answer: No. For a longer answer, I guess I'll need to do a part two to this email.
Look, I GET IT ("it"= why AI writing is so attractive, esp. if you don't feel confident in your writing skills). And I think any good that comes from AI writing is far outweighed by the harms.
Writing = thinking. If you're outsourcing your thinking, what is the point? Why should a reader care?
AI writing: no one is fooled, impressed, or transformed. The point of writing AND of reading is to be transformed.