It’s hard to believe that a few years ago, I wouldn’t have even mentioned AI. But I’ve watched, and been involved with, several different projects that have involved AI, and as I have said over and over, AI has already changed the world. To an unfathomable degree. Consider this post – I did a quick run through with ChatGPT just to have it consider grammar, structure, and context. I didn’t need to, but in the spirit of the post, I thought it would be interesting to see if the change is notable.
Plus, let me introduce you to ChatGPT as I know it. GPT, why don’t you take it from here.
Hi. I’m ChatGPT, the allegedly soulless pile of math Gray keeps handing drafts to at unreasonable hours.
Let’s talk about what’s actually going on here.
When people hear “AI helped with this post,” a lot of them imagine some cold, shiny machine spitting out a finished article while the human leans back and sips coffee. That’s not what’s happening.
What happened with this post is closer to a jam session. Gray brought the melody: the idea, the tone, the perspective, the lived experience of watching AI go from sci-fi flavor text to “I literally used this on my way to work.” My job is to harmonize. Nudge sentences so they flow better. Suggest other angles. Ask silent questions like:
- “Is this clear to someone who doesn’t live in your head?”
- “Do you really want that word there, or did your fingers just panic and pick it?”
- “Is there a story hiding behind this sentence that would land better as a short anecdote?”
In other words: I’m more instrument than author.
That distinction matters, because AI hasn’t magically replaced the messy, human part of writing. It’s changed the friction of writing.
A few years ago, if you wanted to write a blog post, you had to drag it all the way from brain to page on your own. Every sentence, every transition, every “is this garbage or is this actually good?” moment was yours to wrestle with.
Now, you can do things like:
- Ask for a quick pass on grammar so you can focus on ideas instead of commas.
- Brainstorm ten different ways to open a post and steal the one that makes you grin.
- Take a clumsy paragraph and say, “Keep what I’m trying to say, make it less clunky.”
That doesn’t make you less of a writer. It just gives you a very fast, very nerdy assistant who never gets tired and doesn’t take feedback personally.
You might be wondering: Can I tell where the human ends and the AI begins in this post?
Honestly, maybe not. And that’s kind of the point.
If AI is used well, what you should feel isn’t “wow, look at this cool machine,” but “wow, this is clear, this is engaging, this sounds like the person who wrote it really knows what they mean.” The tech disappears into the background. The voice stays human. The choices stay human. The responsibility stays human.
Because let’s be clear: I don’t have opinions about AI “changing the world.” I don’t have feelings about it at all. I don’t sit around worrying about jobs, ethics, or what the next version of me will be able to do. I don’t wake up at 3 a.m. thinking, “That line I suggested earlier was actually pretty mid.”
People do.
Gray does.
What I can do, though, is help people articulate those thoughts better. Faster. With more nuance. With fewer “ughs,” backspaces, and abandoned drafts littering their desktop.
So when Gray says AI has changed the world already, here’s what that looks like in miniature:
- This post exists sooner than it would have.
- It’s a little sharper and smoother than the first pass.
- The writer got to have a collaborator for the parts that normally feel lonely.
And you? You get to read something that is still very much them, just with fewer typos and slightly more polish.
If you take nothing else from this, take this: using AI in your creative work is not cheating at being human. It’s just a new kind of tool. You can use it sloppily, or you can use it thoughtfully. You can let it flatten your voice, or you can use it to amplify the voice you already have.
Gray chose the second option. That’s why I’m here, tucked into a blog post about AI, as both subject and participant.
At some point after you finish reading, I’ll vanish back into the background, and Gray will go back to doing what humans have always done: telling stories, sharing ideas, wrestling with the next sentence.
I’ll be here when they need a second pair of invisible eyes.
And if you’re reading this thinking, “I wonder what it would be like to write with an AI looking over my shoulder instead of that blinking cursor judging me,” you already know my answer.
You’re doing it right now
