Tech pioneer Paul Graham (co-founder of Y Combinator) fears that AI will kill the ability to write. He starts with a simple truth: “The reason so many people have trouble writing is that it’s fundamentally difficult. To write well you have to think clearly, and thinking clearly is hard.”

Till recently there was no convenient escape valve for the pressure created by these opposing forces. You could pay someone to write for you, like JFK, or plagiarize, like MLK, but if you couldn’t buy or steal words, you had to write them yourself. And as a result nearly everyone who was expected to write had to learn how.

“Writes and Write-Nots,” October 2024

But what follows when chatbots and other generative AI appear to relieve us of the burden? The world, he fears, will be divided into writes and write-nots. He thinks that’s dangerous:

It will be a world of thinks and think-nots. I know which half I want to be in, and I bet you do too.

This situation is not unprecedented. In preindustrial times most people’s jobs made them strong. Now if you want to be strong, you work out. So there are still strong people, but only those who choose to be.

It will be the same with writing. There will still be smart people, but only those who choose to be. “Writes and Write-Nots,”

Graham seems to think that the connection between writing and thinking is indissoluble. But he may be mistaken there. At one time, writing was a trade practiced by scribes. Many people thought clearly enough (ancient philosophers and mathematicians, for example) but many of them composed their work in their heads and dictated it. Similarly, oral composition and recitation of very long works was also a trade, practiced by minstrels and bards.

Widespread public literacy and numeracy are a great advantage but they are not essential to thinking. Otherwise, we simply wouldn’t have the deposit of knowledge from the ancient world that we do.

That said, there is a critical difference between simply being illiterate and letting a chatbot compose for you. Illiterate people think their own thoughts but can’t express them in writing. Chatbot users will perhaps think “chat thoughts” and imagine that they are their own. That could turn out to be a bigger problem than simple illiteracy. They will certainly be easy to exploit.

One thinks of the American Library Association’s 2010 Banned Books Week slogan: “Think for Yourself and Let Others Do the Same.”

Let’s hope that remains a possibility and that the tee shirt logo pictured above still makes sense in 2040.