Why You Should Almost Never Use AI to Write Anything Substantive

According to a LessWrong essay, you should almost never use AI to write anything substantive. The argument: the writing process is the thinking process. When you force ideas into sentences and paragraphs, you surface gaps in logic, spot contradictions, and sometimes realize your entire outline is broken. Hand that work to an AI, and you skip that essential thinking. There's another problem: AI sounds plausible while harboring subtle errors. The essayist tested this by asking Claude to write about AI chip smuggling. The output seemed reasonable, but it contained vague claims about export controls, oversimplified what actually gets smuggled, and understated the scale of the problem. The author carves out exceptions: using AI to brainstorm, analyze data, or edit finished drafts is fine. But the real work of thinking — the blank page — should stay human.

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