Well, it’s 2025, and to my chagrin, generative AI tools have stubbornly refused to go away.

My resistance to large language models is not unique. I’m a creative writer. Obviously I don’t want a dystopian future in which robots write all the novels.

Also, as someone who enjoys writing, it’s hard for me to understand why someone would want a robot to do it for them. There’s no feeling like being in the zone and letting your words flow out onto the page. There’s also no feeling like reading a wonderful piece of someone else’s writing, where you can learn, feel seen, escape your life, and immerse yourself in new worlds.

Gen AI at Work

My day job (I work in web content management at a fortune 500 company) has experimented with gen AI tools, so I’ve had the chance to observe their use in a corporate setting. The tools spit out the most generic, bland, soulless copy you’ve ever read in your life. It’s what my teen and tween kids would call “sad beige” writing. Basically, LLMs process words into the literary equivalent of a hot dog. However, that style is suitable for some types of business writing. Press releases aren’t exactly the place for pithy wit or poetic turns of phrase.

In my limited experience, generative AI tools are neither faster nor better than humans, so they offer no advantage. If I have to spend a bunch of time editing and finessing what the robot writes, I might as well write it myself. That being said, I’ve been writing for years. I’m pretty fast at it. If you aren’t fast, I can see the appeal of having a robot do your first draft.

My biggest concern is “garbage in, garbage out.” People who don’t write typically don’t edit, either. That first draft will be the only draft. Furthermore, if an LLM’s output looks “good enough,” people will come to rely on it and fail to proofread or fact-check it, which can be a huge problem.

Horror and Hallucinations

The internet is as chock-full of ChatGPT horror stories as it is with tech bros claiming ChatGPT is the best thing ever.

When a writer asked ChatGPT to help her research an article, it spat out made-up quotes from historical figures and links to sources about unrelated topics. A lawyer asked ChatGPT to find Arizona case law, and it produced detailed descriptions of cases that did not exist. Two other lawyers used ChatGPT to write a legal brief and got smacked down by a judge in federal court.

My daughter, a 10th grader, told me recently that her pre-calc teacher suggested her students ask ChatGPT to generate some practice problems. “But don’t trust the answers. It gets those wrong,” the teacher said.

And I haven’t even touched on the AI-generated “artwork” that’s the stuff of nightmares.

Does Anyone Publish AI-Generated Work?

AI-generated written material is not protected by U.S. copyright law (though this is evolving; the Copyright Office put out a detailed report just last month). That doesn’t stop people from trying, though. I’ve seen literary agents complain on social media about people querying them with completely AI-generated novels.

Sadly, I see some folks–even writers!–shrug their shoulders and say, “Well, gen AI is here to stay, resistance is futile,” as if it’s an oncoming tsunami and not a choice. It’s been disappointing to see online magazines put statements like these in their submission guidelines:

• “If we could detect AI-generated content with 100% accuracy, we would not allow it. But since that is not the case, NewMyths will accept AI-generated content if you label it as such.” (NewMyths.com, which published my story Stoneheart in 2021)
• “If a story is good, it’s good. It shouldn’t matter whether those stories were created with the help of AI, or with a squad of monkeys hammering away at typewriters, or with the help of psychedelic drugs.” (Metastellar)

Thankfully, the vast majority of online magazines have taken a firm anti-AI stance:

• “We do not accept AI or bot-generated stories.” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
• “We are not interested in AI-generated fiction.” (Fantasy Magazine)
• “We do not accept stories written by AI tools such as Chat GPT. If you submit such stories, we may ban you from submitting.” (Flash Fiction Magazine)
• “NO AI. People using AI to cobble together stories are not welcome; just go away, nobody likes you.” (Unnerving Magazine)

In Conclusion

I’ll leave you with food for thought from human writers: two from the world of science fiction, and one from an underrated scene in an underrated movie (Incredibles 2), which is even more poignant if you know which of these characters winds up as the villain.

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this world would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” – Frank Herbert, Dune

“Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism light, white hot, on paper.” – Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing