I could imagine a lot of conversations going like this: 

• Person A: I would go out but I got a lot of homework due tomorrow. It’s 15 questions and none of them are multiple choice.
• Person B: Just use ChatGPT. That’s what I did.
• Person A: Oh yeah. Okay, I’m done. Let’s meet up now. 

Why do we still write nowadays? It’s the beginning of the AI era, in which a simple command can generate everyone’s wildest dreams in seconds. Ask and you shall receive — complete answers to your social studies homework or an essay all ready to submit for your English class. It’s quick and it gets the job done. Do we really need to learn and practice how to write well-perfecting skills in researching, organizing, revising, clarity, and grammar-if only the basics are required to have AI do it for us? 

100% yes. 

Besides the obvious answer that this skill is necessary for school and work, learning to write efficiently provides various benefits for both the writer and the audience that AI writing cannot. 

Take social studies homework as an example — you could be done with the homework in minutes by giving AI the questions and copying down the answers instead of reading the textbook and answering them yourselves. That assignment would have taken hours, and you don’t have time for that! 

However, would you have retained any information by just blindly writing words?

AI saves time by producing answers, but in exchange eliminating the time that would have been spent understanding the concepts in the textbook. You aren’t just answering questions but would have been practicing your ability to condense a large paragraph of information and translate it into your own words that you understand best. You would have been exercising your prowess to choose what words would effectively create the best answer to the question, which, in reality, is from what you remember makes the most sense. Therefore, you can develop a deep comprehension through perfecting writing skills, even if indirectly doing so. 

Improving comprehension also improves communication with the audience. You have to be able to understand the topic yourself if you want to be able to share the message successfully. In the process, you may have chosen specific words and adjusted your tone in your text messages or social media posts to ensure that there will be no misinterpretations between you and your intended audience.

Guess what? These everyday skills are taught and strengthened by writing, not AI. To add on, ChatGPT won’t be able to wholly understand how to write these text messages or emails with your relation to the receiver in mind because only you completely know your audience. 

I personally believe that AI can be used with your words but not as your words. Asking the program for ideas or examples is a great way to break writer’s block. It’s the same as bouncing ideas off a friend, though the ideas won’t be original as AI takes everything from the internet. 

I would also approve of AI being used to check the grammar and syntax of your writing. It’s just like clicking the spell check button in Google Docs or using Grammarly to scan your words for mistakes or improvements. You can even note these highlighted corrections to prevent these errors from occurring again. 

But, if your work is born from AI and you just added a couple of touches to make it sound human, then that is where I draw the line. This work is not yours even if you were involved in the final product. It is ethically wrong to pass a machine’s work as your own even for minor assignments. You aren’t learning anything or practicing your writing skills, so it’s only hurting yourself. Asking for the point of doing the work yourself is the same as asking for the purpose of having receptionists, paralegals, pharmacists, or even teachers. Because being human matters.  

If you look to the future, you will realize that AI will not always be there to have your back. The bell-to-bell cell phone ban scheduled to be enacted starting the 2025-2026 school year will prohibit the use of most cell phones. No longer can students sneak a look down their lap like it’s the most interesting thing in the world. They will have to rely on nothing but themselves and their writing skills, so it pays to be a good writer. 

In the end, all that really matters is finishing up your social studies homework. AI gets the job done, but at what cost?