If you start writing today, there's no way to know if you can write without AI

# "Writing with AI: What's the Best Approach?" Source: [https://www.ssp.sh/brain/ai-writing/](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/ai-writing/) Last updatedUpdated:Sep 22, 2026·CreatedCreated:Feb 14, 2023·6 min readrecently updatedRecent changesSep 22today\+172/−28wordsSep 82 weeks ago\+17/−75wordsAug 214 weeks ago\+25/−4wordsAug 66 weeks ago\+15/−0wordsAug 47 weeks ago\+6/−0wordsJul 288 weeks ago\+275/−4wordsJul 202 months ago\+79/−9wordsJul 63 months ago\+11/−16wordsJul 33 months agopublished· 808 words To me, AI writing always results in this: > They always look nice at first sight, but over time, they look all the same: complex, unnatural, and busy\. Same asDALL\-Eimages\. And[If it’s read by a human it should also be written by a human](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/if-consumed-by-a-human-should-be-written-by-human/)\. Nothing worse than having to read through a stack of elaborated text that has been generated on a small prompt\. [## \#Writing Styles: AI Extended \(Bloated\), and the Prompts, the Raw Writing](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/ai-writing/#writing-styles-ai-extended-bloated-and-the-prompts-the-raw-writing)Based on the[The Differences between Writing and Coding](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/the-differences-between-writing-and-coding/)thatNaval Ravikantshared, writing is consumed by human beings, and they discuss, that[Id rather Read the Prompt](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/id-rather-read-the-prompt/), why would I need to read your fleshed\-out article by AI, and not the lean prompt with all the insights? That’s what Naval askedGarry Tan, and they didn’t have an answer\. It’s like the below meme,[AI making you Exhausted](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/ai-making-you-exhausted/)both on the creation time, as it never ends, people have more work than ever, but also on the reading side, as you need to read everyone’s bloated AI\-written stuff, rather than just the prompt\. Same as we do in programming: sharing`AGENTS\.md`or[Agentic Skills](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/agentic-skills/)so others can use that insight too, rather than sharing 10 different solutions\. Obviously, as explained in the difference between writing in programming, it’s not the same as a computer consumes programming, and if you solve a problem, why not generate the app, the solution, and share that? We can’t do that in writing\. [### \#The Two Kinds of Writing Styles with AI Models](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/ai-writing/#the-two-kinds-of-writing-styles-with-ai-models)What if we have two kinds of writing: 1. The**elaborated but bloated**\(AI\-enriched\) one \- like whatGarry Tanis doing on Twitter or articles as he says 2. Or the**raw prompt**, with all the ideas and insights**lean and easy to read**\(not the solutions, maybe?\)\. Very much like the philosophy of[Id rather Read the Prompt](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/id-rather-read-the-prompt/)\. And as I argue in[Manual Writing](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/writing-manually/)and[Will AI replace Humans](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/will-ai-replace-humans/), the second point has**character, a soul and human behind**, no AI model will ever have\. [## \#How Do I Write with AI?](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/ai-writing/#how-do-i-write-with-ai)I was wondering if AI should suggest writing to me \- a question asked byEuwyn Goh\. It might be forbrainstorming\. I don’t want AI to write my sentences, but it could help me brainstorm\. Usually, the way I work is: first, I do brainstorming, maybe some research on what happened in history\. In that phase, AI might help\. But also, most often when I ask what I should add to my articles, AI says to add “real\-world examples”\. So,**most of the time it’s not that creative**\. And the worst part is, after using AI, I usually haven’t done my work, and I’m more exhausted than when I just write it, and as well,[it’s really hard to finish an idea that is not yours \(and suggested by AI\)](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/its-hard-to-finish-an-idea-that-is-not-yours-and-suggested-by-ai/)🤐\. What I used it for just recently, though, was to go through my notes, list MY notes, and add them to the chapter of my book \(all in markdown, which’s why it works well\)\. What’s nice is that you provide a way to train my own data for that AI using a local model\. At least that’s what I’m trying a little at[obsidian\-note\-taking\-assistant](https://github.com/sspaeti/obsidian-note-taking-assistant)with local\-first Second Brain RAG for any Obsidian Vault \(works with any Markdown\)\. Works with DuckDB\. Also includes a web app, and see the blog article at[Building an Obsidian RAG with DuckDB](https://www.ssp.sh/blog/obsidian-rag-duckdb-sql/#:~:text=obsidian-rag)\. Or more examples at[Second Brain Assistant with Obsidian \(NoteGPT\)](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/second-brain-assistant-with-obsidian-notegpt/)\. [## \#Alternative: Writing Manually](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/ai-writing/#alternative-writing-manually)I’m all in for[Writing Manually](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/writing-manually/)and not[replacing my thinking with AI](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/will-ai-replace-humans/), especially if a human is consuming it\. [### \#If Consumed by a Human, Should Be Written by Human](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/ai-writing/#if-consumed-by-a-human-should-be-written-by-human)[If Consumed by a Human, Should Be Written by Human](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/if-consumed-by-a-human-should-be-written-by-human/) [https://www.ssp.sh/brain/ai-writing/#ai-writing-tools](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/ai-writing/#ai-writing-tools)- Byword - ChatGPT - LEXbyDan Shipper - Claude AIwithClaude 3\.5being much better than ChatGPT 4\.0 - SpiralbyDan ShipperandEvery \(Writing Tool\)^114b88 - [River Docs: The AI Document Editor](https://rivereditor.com/) - WordsmithbyEuwyn Goh See alsoUse Cases of AI Writing \(ChatGPT, Lex, etc\.\)andCreative Prompt Engineering\. [## \#If You Start Writing Today, There’s no way to Know if You Can Write without AI](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/ai-writing/#if-you-start-writing-today-theres-no-way-to-know-if-you-can-write-without-ai)Hannes Mühleisen[said](https://youtu.be/7WwuJS03AbM)that he has the benefit of having coded or created DuckDB before the AI hype, so people trust the product, but it’s hard if you start today, it’s really hard to see if a product is good or bad\- they all look amazing\. It’s the same for writing\. If you can show you have written before using AI, people cantrustyou more easily than when you start today\. If you haven’t, there’s**no way for readers to know if you can write without AI**, whereas if you have written long enough, people know\. [## \#Results of AI Written Analyis](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/ai-writing/#results-of-ai-written-analyis)### [\#Pangram Report per](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/ai-writing/#pangram-report-per-2026-07-09)2026\-07\-09 [AI Content Is Everywhere on Social Media, Especially LinkedIn \| Pangram Labs](https://www.pangram.com/blog/ai-in-your-feed)\- obviously dedecting AI content is also not reliable, again, AI is not deterministic, it might even say once it’s AI written and once not if you asked it twice, but here are some reports to ponder from that article:  And LinkedIn andMediumbeing top, is what I saw as well, no test needed\. Substack is very low makes sense too, as there’s no API or no[Social Media Scheduling Tools and Platforms](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/social-media-scheduling-tools-and-platforms/)yet to publish notes or substacks newsletters, plus it’s a platform for actual writers\. Here are two more overviews:   [Source](https://www.pangram.com/blog/ai-in-your-feed) Redditreplies are rarely AI written \- though I know that is also depenend on the subreddit for sure:  [Source](https://www.pangram.com/blog/ai-in-your-feed) > How the data was collected From the article: *“Collectively, since the Chrome Extension’s launch on April 24th 2026, users who opted into sharing their data for research helped us create a dataset of**1,002,627 posts across several of the largest social media platforms**on the internet:**LinkedIn, Medium, Substack, X/Twitter, and Reddit**\.* *Each post in our dataset is counted only once, and we only scan items that are longer than 50 words\. Every post was analyzed with Pangram 3\.3, our latest AI detection model, which achieves a 0\.01% false positive rate\. This dataset allows us a direct window into what AI\-generated content people are seeing on their feeds at this point in time\.”* More on[How to detect AI Writing](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/how-to-detect-ai-writing/)\. [## \#Further Reads](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/ai-writing/#further-reads)- Course with Dan Shipper:AI writing gets a bad rap\. - Plagiarism: Check if AI Written:[Tools to Check Plagiarism and AI\-Generated](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/tools-to-check-plagiarism-and-ai-generated/)\. - Counter Arguments to write*with*AI:- [Technical writing is too important to leave to language models](https://www.counting-stuff.com/technical-writing-is-too-important-to-leave-to-language-models/) - [Will AI replace Humans](https://www.ssp.sh/brain/will-ai-replace-humans/) - [Don’t be a meat proxy](https://gruhn.me/blog/2026-08-03/) - [Opinion \| I’m Begging You: Never Write With A\.I\. \- The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/opinion/artificial-intelligence-ai-writing.html) --- Origin:AOMW Course\- The Art of Modern Writing \(Foster\.co\),[AI Writing with Dan Shipper \- YouTube](https://youtu.be/psmXA3esSy8) References:ChatGPT,Creative Prompt Engineering,My Services and Target Audience \(SSP Data\),Brainstorming Ideas for Earning Money \- Book, SSP Data