When I had started my PhD, I thought the writing part of a paper was just the last thing I needed to do to summarize my results, like a boring epilogue to the more exciting science. What surprised me was how much of the scientific process relied on my ability to convey my ideas to someone else. And to be able to do that you need clarity of mind, you need to have worked through multiple drafts to be able to get to your point as efficiently and clearly as possible. So many times I only discovered what I was actually researching during the writing part.

The problem with AI writing is that it makes people believe that writing is just writing and not a tool for thinking very deeply about the topic you are writing about. I am not completely opposed to AI assisted writing, but if I see AI writing, it’s telling me that the author tried to take a shortcut in their own thinking and it’s a good heuristic that the ideas will not be thought through enough to warrant my complete attention.

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torben-friis an hour ago | parent | next [-]

>it’s telling me that the author tried to take a shortcut in their own thinking and it’s a good heuristic that the ideas will not be thought through enough to warrant my complete attention.

Even worse: Facing AI writing, there's a strong suspicion that any concerns or counterpoints you bring won't be actually considered, but rather copypasted into an llm session.

	▲	sublinear 22 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		That's a good thing. The writer who has nothing to say and the dumb audience who doesn't care stay down where they belong pacified by their "AI".

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gonzalohm an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I feel that way about coding. Sometimes you have an idea and a plan to implement it. But once you start coding you realize that some things were not fully right or way more complex that it should If you let AI code for you, you will lose that

	▲	0c3ca83 43 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yes. The code I produce in a year I could type in a week. The time goes into understanding the problem.
	▲	FeteCommuniste an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth (at runtime)." - Mike Tyson

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0c3ca83 44 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The problem with AI is that it's entire selling point is saving time by not needing to think very deeply about topics.

The writing is downstream of that.

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jbs789 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This happened to me recently. I just asked what the prompt was. I found it really tough to read AI words, not knowing the weight to put in each word. A almost gave it more credit than was due and responded in detail, before seeing the prompt and responding barely at all - equivalent to the thought put in.