Scientists admit that AI will kill writing


(MENAFN) The increasing reliance on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for writing tasks, whether in professional settings or educational environments, could lead to a widespread loss of writing skills, warns Paul Graham, a prominent computer scientist and co-founder of Y Combinator. In a thought-provoking essay published last week, Graham argued that in just a few decades, writing could become a rare skill, as more people outsource their ability to write to AI systems.

Graham, a respected investor and author, believes that writing is fundamentally tied to clear thinking, and that the act of writing forces individuals to organize their thoughts in a coherent manner. “The reason so many people have trouble writing is that it’s fundamentally difficult. To write well, you have to think clearly, and thinking clearly is hard,” he stated in his essay. For Graham, the process of writing is not just about putting words on paper but about engaging in deeper intellectual work that requires clarity and mental discipline.

However, with the rise of advanced AI tools that can produce written content with little to no human input, Graham argues that people are increasingly abandoning the need to develop writing skills. AI-driven technologies are now capable of generating essays, reports, emails, and even creative content, without the user having to learn or master the art of writing. This shift, Graham believes, poses a significant long-term problem for society, as writing—and by extension, clear thinking—becomes less and less of a skill that people need to cultivate.

The scientist acknowledged that technology has always been a force that disrupts certain skills, pointing to the decline of blacksmithing as an example of a profession made obsolete by industrialization. “There aren’t many blacksmiths left, and it doesn’t seem to be a problem,” he said, highlighting how certain skills fade as new technologies replace them. But Graham stresses that the potential loss of writing skills is a different and more troubling scenario. In his view, the inability to write could lead to a more serious societal divide—a division between those who can think critically and clearly, and those who cannot.

“A world divided into writes and write-nots is more dangerous than it sounds,” Graham warned, noting that writing is intimately tied to the cognitive processes that help people reason and engage with complex ideas. Without the need to write, he fears that fewer individuals will engage in the type of deep thinking required for intellectual development. He believes that this divide could create a world of “thinks and think-nots,” where fewer people are capable of independent thought and analysis.

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