Are we worried about AI? We are now

Last year, I wrote a newsletter titled: “Are we worried about AI? Not really.” I was wrong.

A year later, it has all changed as we are seeing some young writers losing their confidence and resorting to submitting work generated by AI. It fills us with deep sadness that we have seen AI work submitted because it means that young people are missing out on something so important about the writing process. We would really appreciate your sharing this post with your young writers.

At Write On, we are keen to support young writers through messy first drafts written by real humans — our tutors have a lot of experience, and it’s the job we love to do.  It's also how we all write! You should see our notebooks and files full of different versions!

We are now alert to the familiar tropes and smooth, yet empty, structures used by AI, so when we are presented with a polished piece of work without having seen developing drafts, we will check and ask questions. It's a waste of all our time giving feedback on decisions about ideas, words and structure that were not the child's. We are grateful to students who have learned from this, apologised and gone on to write wonderful original work. (Oh, and we can spot where small changes and even errors have been added to make it look like it's human — we aren’t so easy to hoodwink.)

Dear Young Writer,

I want to tell you something important: your ideas and your words matter.

You may not always believe it, but the ideas that spark in your mind and the stories that only you can tell are taonga no one else can bring into the world.

They are shaped by your memories, your experiences, your emotions and your questions. 

AI can write the next logical word, stack sentences together, and echo patterns from what’s been written by others. But it cannot be you. 

It also has no idea about how you get to feel as you write. Remember when you struggled to find the right word for a poem and then ta-da!? Remember when a character who had been in your head appeared on the page and surprised you with their wisdom/ their stupidity/ their humour? 

Only we human writers can know that joy, that frustration, that excitement and that sense of satisfaction when it is done. Please don’t shortchange yourself by asking AI to do your thinking and creating for you. It can’t! 

I came across this poem: 

FOR A STUDENT WHO USED AI TO WRITE A PAPER

Now I let it fall back in the grasses.

I hear you. I know this life is hard now.

I know your days are precious on this earth.

But what are you trying to be free of?

The living? The miraculous task of it?

Love is for the ones who love the work.

-Joseph Fasano

AI writing may sound smooth, “correct”, but cannot be new. It can’t surprise the world the way you can.

So, write messily. Write even when you’re unsure. Every word you choose, the order you choose, the mood you choose, the story you choose brings you closer to the writer you are becoming.

The world needs your voice.

from Heather

(c) Write On 2025