Whose Voice Is on Your Pages? Human vs. AI Writing

I opened a newsletter a few weeks ago touting the “glorious” age of AI and the advantages it provides.

Hm, I thought. AI is fascinating, I guess. Speedy. Clever, in its way. But…glorious?

It’s been studying us. Wouldn’t that suggest anything “glorious” about AI can be attributed in part to what it’s drawn from that which makes us gloriously human? It did, after all, train on our published projects like articles, blog posts, and books, which it’s already consumed.

Where I’m at regarding AI writing

I’ve been thinking a lot about AI lately, as headline after headline offers dire warnings (job losses!) or lavish praises (glorious!), depending on the source. I know clients and colleagues who are using AI extensively in their operations, including research, drafting, and editing. And I know others who haven’t tried it even once.

To be honest, I’ve gone back and forth on it myself. When ChatGPT was first making the headlines in 2022, I “interviewed it“¹ because I was curious to see how it worked and what it would say. I was simultaneously freaked out and fascinated with the results. Should I avoid it or embrace it?

I didn’t decide on the spot. Instead, I experimented with it in low-stakes ways before drawing any conclusions. And it’s continued to evolve so rapidly, I feel like I land on an opinion only to change my mind a week later based on new information. I’m suffering from technological whiplash.

What is AI learning?

Now that AI is embedded in our writing programs, email inboxes, and more, I’m revisiting my opinion once more. What’s the purpose of infusing everything we touch with it? AI companies say AI is part of these systems to assist us. And it very well may be helpful for a lot of people and applications.

I’ve declined it or turned it off wherever possible, because I’m starting to wonder if it’s there not only to assist but also to learn from our unfolding ideas, structure, stories, word choice, sentence structure, and style. As it ostensibly helps us is it also studying the gloriously human way we think? It supposedly works “alongside” us; as it does, is it being trained not so much on what we’re saying but on how we write and think and puzzle over life moment by moment?

After all, writing is thinking, and thinking is one way to be human. This means embedded AI is aware of our every finger tap, learning the human mind-at-work. It sees how we think by watching every choice we make as we type a sentence, click backspace, tweak a phrase to revise and land on better phrasing, clearer expression.

Are these AI systems scanning our composition in Gmail, Google Docs, Notion, or Microsoft in real time—ideas we write to make sense of our world—to figure out how we process that which is formulating deep within us? Are they doing this so they can write better, or are they taking it a step further…to gather intel on the way we think so they can write and interact even more like us?

Maybe it’s my imagination running wild.

Let it in or leave it out?

Authors have tapped their imagination to write novels about trusting computers and “machines” too much and too early. Filmmakers made movies about it. These were meant to be warnings, cautionary tales; instead, some storylines seem as if they’re being used as blueprints to follow.

As a writer myself and a coach helping others find their voice, I feel more and more like we should resist using AI for our creative work. It may be fine, let’s say, for professional writing—producing an executive summary from one’s own notes, for example. But I feel more and more like we should find AI-free spaces to write more personal or provocative poetry and prose. In these, we express our deepest truths, tell vulnerable stories, reveal transformative narrative, and offer life-changing ideas. Allowing AI into making that feels…intrusive.

As I mentioned, good friends, colleagues, and far more successful coaches and creative advisors will disagree with me. They may argue we should treat it like a tool (it’s obviously here to stay, after all, so don’t be a Luddite, right?). If I don’t encourage you to use it, they might worry you’ll be left behind.

If we writers let AI help with non-creative tasks, it’ll free us to focus on our uniquely human contributions, they might say. These people might recommend AI as a research tool, a coach-replacement, or a writing-buddy to discuss the project and be sure we’re not missing anything. Discussing ideas with other people nearly always enhances our ideas. How different is that from engaging with AI?

And all these people may be right.

But I keep thinking…

Inviting AI to tell us what to think

While I don’t mean to be pessimistic or defeatist, AI is worming its way in where it isn’t wanted and our best efforts to avoid it may fail. I suspect it will continue to find and take all it needs. Until then, can’t we hold off on inviting AI into the private corners of our minds? Why give away thought? Why welcome AI to be part of our creative and writing process simply to be more productive?

When we allow it to contribute to our brainstorming process, we’re inviting it to tell us what to think. When we take that a step further and ask it to write on our behalf, it’s telling us how to express ourselves.

When we do that…who wrote it? Whose voice is on the page? Who do we credit when the piece is published? Are we giving up our distinctly human voice?

I’m remembering the scene in the The Little Mermaid where Ursula the Sea Witch commands, “Sing!” Ariel begins to do so, and Ursula shouts, “Keep singing!”²

As she sings, Ariel’s voice rises up from deep within her and appears in her throat as a shimmering sphere. A ghastly version of Ursula’s claw-like fingers reaches into Ariel’s throat, grabs the sphere, pulls it out, and holds it there, shimmering for an instant before she sucks it into a shell, where the voice remains inside, trapped and strapped around Ursula’s neck.

Once she gave up her voice, Ariel got the legs she wanted, but she could no longer speak or sing.

Writing helps us think and connect

The act of writing helps us learn more about ourselves and the world; it’s a way to process ideas and determine what we think and believe about them. It’s how we develop our voice and share it with others. Do you ever feel that shimmering power when you write? I don’t feel it every time I’m working, but sometimes I sense that shimmering energy when I’m deep in creative flow.

Writing can be one of the most rewarding, satisfying activities that results in authentic and intimate expressions of self. Why outsource that?

Offering up our gloriously human self to a machine might benefit us in the short run, but it’s benefiting the machine in the long run (and those behind the machine most of all). “Sing!” it’s shouting. “Keep singing!”

But it’s so handy!

Oh, but it’s hard to resist. Because it’s already everywhere and at times we have to make an effort not to use it. And it’s so darned handy.

AI can feel like a near-miraculous tool to help us write faster and edit easier—things we could do on our own, but slower and with more effort. No wonder that newsletter said it was “glorious.” It seems wild when an article draft can roll out in seconds on the screen—a draft like might take a day or longer with human effort alone. And when we’re stuck, it’s so easy to ask for a few ideas to get going.

I experimented with having AI create social media content by pulling from a blog post I’d written. That seemed helpful and harmless, as the original source was penned by me, so the excerpts were my own words. And I assumed LLMs had already gobbled up my original source for training purposes because it was published and public.

One time I had it draft a newsletter. I didn’t hate the final product—it actually did a decent job—but I hated how it made my feel: unsettled, unnerved. I scrapped it and started over on my own.

I thought I wanted a quick solution, but when it arrived so quickly, I realized that I prefer to wrestle with words and ideas. I needed to land on a conclusion that felt true to me, that emerged from my own internal struggle and questioning. If AI does all of my “thinking,” I’m shorting myself. In shorting myself, I think I would short my readers.

Nope. Not doing that again, even if it takes me far longer, even if my ideas draw from fewer sources. I know AI can be “trained on our voice” to “sound like us.” But if I do that, it’s not me. And I’d know it’s not me—that it’s something pretending to be me.

Wrestling with our drafts is part of a human’s writing process: we don’t need instant answers; we want to grapple with the ideas ourselves and find our own connections.

If AI does the research, what did we ourselves actually discover?

If AI connects the dots for us, what have we puzzled out to share?

If AI outlines the piece, has it landed on a flow that reflects our own way of thinking?

If AI drafts the piece or polishes it, what have we actually written?

Matthew McConaughey recently trademarked…himself. According to PC Magazine, he did it because “modern AI tools can convincingly replicate a person’s voice, face, and image, placing them in situations they never imagined or consented to.”³ He wants to control when and how his image or voice is used…because that’s his distinct, shimmering voice.

If I let AI write on my behalf, am I granting it permission to create a version of my writing voice? Am I relinquishing my gloriously human voice when I let it kind of “replicate” me? I’m not famous, but why would I so easily forfeit my own voice to gain so little when we have Matthew McConaughey modeling the choice to protect ownership of his voice?

I am using AI, though

I hope I’m not coming off self-righteous, because I do use AI to help with a few useful tasks that I’ll describe below. I will say, however, that as my conclusions shift, as I suspect they will (because they continue to), I’ll gladly stop using it even for creating things such as:

• transcripts from recorded trainings in YPM (my platform-building membership)
• time-stamped summaries of those training so we can find key moments in the videos more easily.
• direct quotes pulled from interviews that I can share on social media
• pro/con lists related to ideas I’m considering for my business
• descriptions of upcoming events in my community
• reasons to choose one to-do app over another
• video captions

These are ways I have been using AI. Will I continue? We shall see. So far those have felt like non-creative tasks that I’ve delegated to AI and it doesn’t feel like it contradicts my increasing resolve to leave AI completely out of my writing process.

What would happen if we switched from AI-assisted to no-AI writing at all?

What would happen if switched from, say, AI-assisted writing to no AI at all? What if we leave AI out of our writing process altogether and revert to exclusively human writing?

Without AI influencing our thoughts or expression, I think we’d produce words far more authentic and satisfying than anything AI could generate on our behalf.

Instead of article or essay drafts spit out in seconds, we’d write forward through Resistance and enjoy aha moments that burst into our minds like shimmering balls of light. Without AI, you’ll feel something inside your head and heart that whirs and stirs in an only-human way.

That said, if you are using AI and feel it is in no way taking over your creativity, please keep using it. Don’t let my line of thinking make you feel defensive, upset, or shamed. Use it thoughtfully and intentionally if you’ve discovered how to enhance your work and you feel good about it. Make your choice boldly.

I would encourage you to notice if, at any stage of your creative process, AI is throttling your own glorious voice or altering it to the point of being unrecognizable. If so, revisit your reason. Is AI still serving you well? If yes, keep going. If not, maybe find a way to return to human-only writing.

Publishing and AI writing

Publishing is reacting to changes in AI and how authors are employing it, so what I share right now might be obsolete next month. But if you’re a writer pursuing publishing, consider the following:

Are you submitting your writing to an agent or publisher? If you’re submitting to a traditional publisher, consider absolute minimum or zero AI input. Even though publishers themselves are using AI in their processes and workflows, they seem to be requesting that writers do not at all.

Certainly if you us it at all, such as for AI assistance, document every instance and be ready to show that to your agent or editor. I think the primary reason for requesting no AI is to ensure the copyright is legally yours. I’m not a legal expert, but as I understand it, AI content cannot be copyrighted, so that seems to be at the root of it.⁴

Here’s a filter when you’re debating your AI use. Ask yourself, “When it comes to using AI, what would ___________ do?” Think of a writer you admire, even someone no longer alive. If they understood what AI is capable of, how would they use it, or would they use it at all?

Plug in a name: When it comes to using AI, what would Madeleine L’Engle do? Emily Dickinson? Ray Bradbury? Wendell Berry? (Haha…I think we know what Wendell Berry would do!) Swap those names for your own literary heroes. Let them offer guidance, even if you have to imagine their response.

Glorious human writing takes longer to produce

If you’ve been using AI, you may be thrilled at how much faster you complete projects. If you’ve been reading this and rethinking your use, you’ll find it hard to switch back to 100 percent human effort. Writing from start to finish all on your own, will take longer even for speedy writers.

Slowing down can of course be a problem if you’re under a deadline and your draft isn’t even started, but if you can take the time to tackle it all on your own, I believe gloriously human writing contributes and leads to a more glorious humanity.

Some AI optimists are saying say that AI’s ability to problem-solve will definitely benefit humanity. I don’t claim to speak into that at all, and I’m even taking a risk weighing in on my thoughts on AI and writing.

Heck, maybe this is reading like a manifesto, but I’m concerned that letting AI take over much of our writing process means AI will be contributing in that way to humanity as much or more than humans. We’ll end up with a strange, circular, ever-shrinking experience, with fewer fresh ideas emerging as we writers keep drawing from that same well. If we take what AI is giving us, we’re just sloshing it around and pouring it back into the same well again.

This is arguable. Feel free to disagree.

Draw from real writers

In fact, I can think of one way to disagree. You could argue that writers have been caught up in a circular experience as we continue studying “the greats.” When we learn and apply their techniques, passing along in new packages the same old hero’s journey with its tropes and techniques…or when we read challenging classic essays and build on their ideas, that’s kind of the same thing, right? We’re taking it in and letting it influence what we write. We’re drawing from the well and pouring back into the well.

I don’t know…

Readers engage with the written word in a much more intimate way than AI ever could, even when analyzing it. When we engage with texts preserved over the ages—untouched by AI—we aren’t mechanically memorizing it. It becomes part of us and what we write next is far more thoughtful than parroted paraphrasing. I prefer to be part of a line of humans reading, reasoning, and interacting with texts penned by other humans…not a line of AI-generated thoughts.

Write as yourself

As we write during this “glorious era” increasingly infiltrated by AI, I do think it’s wise to continue to read about it. Learn about AI’s rapidly expanding capabilities so you aren’t left behind or taken by surprise. I subscribe to newsletters focused on AI advancements so I can stay alert (and at times, to be honest, alarmed).

But when it comes to your writing, take your own notes. Create your own outline. Write your own draft. In those early iterations, do all of that without any AI assistance so you come to your own conclusions first.

Write as yourself…as your gloriously human self. Write from yourself. Bring your messy message, your half-formed truths, and let writing itself be the tool you use to sort it out. Grapple with ideas and sentence structure and word choice to convey your meaningful message.

I’m here for all the misplaced modifiers and overused filler words. Guess how we can fix that? Yes, I know. You can let AI clean up your draft. But you could also read it aloud, self-edit, or even hire human editors who bring their gloriously human skills to our pages.

Whose voice will be on your pages? I hope it’s your gloriously human voice. I don’t want to read what you asked AI to write for you. I want to read what you have to say…the way only you can say it. Maybe it’ll be less organized, a little repetitive, but it’ll be your voice singing—shimmering—on the page.

Additional Resources:

• Metaphor Magic: Wave Your Pen Like a Wand
• To Be More Creative, Write a Letter to Your Reader
• Never Go to Bed without a Story to Tell

FREE Email Course

Why doesn’t your writing linger with readers?

Grab this free, four-lesson course: ✨Metaphor Magic.✨ Master this literary device and your words will stick with readers long after they step away from your pages.

Footnotes:

1. Kroeker, Ann. “AI writing tools keep getting better. How can writers keep up? (Interview with ChatGPT) – Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.” Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach, 2 Nov. 2025, annkroeker.com/2022/12/15/ai-writing-tools-keep-getting-better-how-can-writers-keep-up-interview-with-chatgpt. Accessed 6 February 2026.
2. Sparkle), The Sparkle Girl (aka Caitlin. “Ariel’s Voice Taken By Ursula ~ (The Little Mermaid) (1989).” YouTube, 7 July 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=77qTN9kD8sY. Accessed 6 February 2026.
3. “McCurdy, Will. “Matthew McConaughey Trademarks Himself to Fight AI Impersonations.” PCMAG, 17 Jan. 2026, www.pcmag.com/news/matthew-mcconaughey-trademarks-himself-to-fight-ai-impersonations. Accessed 5 February 2026.
4. Professor Uche Ewelukwa Ofodile | U. Arkansas School of Law, U. S. “Explainer: AI and Copyright—Can Works Created Solely by AI Be Copyrighted?” – JURIST – Features – Legal News & Commentary, 17 June 2025, www.jurist.org/features/2025/06/17/explainer-ai-and-copyright-can-works-created-solely-by-ai-be-copyrighted. Accessed 6 February 2026.