Why Some Writers Feel Uneasy About AI

Every time I post something involving AI, I know what’s coming. A few writers(often my writer friends) will tell me, quite firmly, that they’ll never touch AI “with a barge pole.” Others worry that using it might dull the human brain, or that writing with its help feels like cheating, like handing in someone else’s homework. Some say it produces “soulless” words, and that real writing should only ever come from real people.

And honestly, I understand every one of those feelings. Writing is deeply personal. It’s how we make sense of the world, and of ourselves. When we sit down to write, it’s our emotions, memories and imagination that shape the story. So when a machine suddenly enters that creative space, it can feel like an intruder, a cold, logical guest who doesn’t understand what it means to struggle for the right word or to feel that spark of inspiration.

Banning Calculators In Our Schools

As a young teacher in the 1970’s and 80’s I taught in primary schools where the use of calculators was at best frowned upon, and often, simply not allowed. As late as 1998 the BBC ran a news article with the headline –‘Calculator ban marks return to tradition’ and the first paragraph read, “Children under the age of eight will be banned from using calculators under the government’s drive to improve the quality of maths lessons.”

How would such thinking fit into our schools today with the amount of sophisticated technology young people have at their fingertips? People have always felt threatened by new technology. And those very same people often want to maintain the status quo or ‘return’ to the good old days.

Curiosity: The Heartbeat of Creativity

But here’s the part that fascinates me: curiosity and creativity have always been partners. Every creative leap in history, from cave paintings to printing presses to photography, has started with someone asking, “What happens if…?”

Each new tool has faced resistance. “The pen is a virgin, but the printing press is a whore.” – Filippo de Strata, a Dominican monk and scribe in the late 15th century, who deeply opposed the printing press. He called for the complete eradication of all printing presses.

Painters once feared that photography would kill art. Early typists were accused of abandoning the craft of handwriting. And yet, somehow, art and writing didn’t vanish, they evolved.

For me, experimenting with AI isn’t about giving up creativity; it’s about testing its boundaries. When I use AI to co-write a story, I’m not asking it to replace my imagination. I’m asking it to challenge it. I’m seeing what happens when two different ways of thinking, one human, one artificial, meet somewhere in the middle. Sometimes the result is flat, sometimes it’s fascinating, and occasionally it sparks an idea I never would have had otherwise.

Why I See AI as an Invitation, Not a Threat

That’s where the joy lies for me, in the experiment itself. I still get that same rush of excitement when an idea clicks, but now it’s mixed with surprise. I’m not outsourcing my creativity; I’m stretching it. The same brain that once feared it might “rust” is now busier than ever, questioning, adapting, inventing.

I’ll always have deep respect for writers who prefer to keep their words entirely their own. There’s real beauty in that discipline. But I also believe there’s room on the creative landscape for those of us who like to wander off the path and see what happens when we ask the machine to help us imagine differently.

Maybe that’s what being a writer has always meant, not protecting creativity, but pushing it.

Keeping the Human at the Centre

In the end, AI can’t dream, feel, or care, but we can. And that’s why we’ll always have the upper hand. It’s not about choosing between human or machine; it’s about choosing curiosity over fear.

So, I’ll keep experimenting, not because I want AI to write for me, but because I want to see how it might help me think in new ways. After all, curiosity doesn’t fade with age; it just needs a reason to wake up

What do you think?

Does curiosity have a place in creativity when AI is involved, or does it cross a line for you? Share your thoughts in the comments below, I’d love to hear your perspective.

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