Recent studies suggest that tools such as ChatGPT make our brains less active and our writing less original.
Of course, a writer can in theory always refuse an A.I.-generated suggestion. But the tools seem to exert a hypnotic effect, causing the constant flow of suggestions to override the writerâs own voice. Aditya Vashistha, a professor of information science at Cornell who co-authored the study, compared the A.I. to âa teacher who is sitting behind me every time Iâm writing, saying, âThis is the better version.â â He added, âThrough such routine exposure, you lose your identity, you lose the authenticity. You lose confidence in your writing.â Mor Naaman, a colleague of Vashisthaâs and a co-author of the study, told me that A.I. suggestions âwork covertly, sometimes very powerfully, to change not only what you write but what you think.â The result, over time, might be a shift in what âpeople think is normal, desirable, and appropriate.â We often hear A.I. outputs described as âgenericâ or âbland,â but averageness is not necessarily anodyne. Vauhini Vara, a novelist and a journalist whose recent book âSearchesâ focussed in part on A.I.âs impact on human communication and selfhood, told me that the mediocrity of A.I. texts âgives them an illusion of safety and being harmless.â Vara (who previously worked as an editor at The New Yorker) continued, âWhatâs actually happening is a reinforcing of cultural hegemony.â OpenAI has a certain incentive to shave the edges off our attitudes and communication styles, because the more people find the modelsâ output acceptable, the broader the swath of humanity it can convert to paying subscribers. Averageness is efficient: âYou have economies of scale if everything is the same,â Vara said.
