A friend I admire posted recently about how “obvious” it is when people use ChatGPT. The comments were predictable: I don’t use AI. I wrote my book myself. The subtext: using AI is lazy, fake, or somehow shameful.
The backlash is predictable. We’re scared of sameness, of machines replacing human creativity. I get that. None of us wants to live in a dystopia of synthetic thought. There’s skepticism, eye rolls, and even a sense of shame or defensiveness when someone admits they’ve used a tool like ChatGPT in their creative process. But here’s the part that often gets left out: AI isn’t replacing my voice. It’s helping me access it again.
And I’m not alone.
The Voices We Don’t See
The AI backlash often forgets the people for whom writing is physically or cognitively difficult. I’m not trying to outsource creativity. I have something to say, but need help crossing the bridge from thought to expression. It gives form to ideas that are fully human but would’ve sat buried without a push.
Me with my business partner at our PR Firm, Pre-Illness
When Your Brain Doesn’t Work the Way It Used To
Thirteen years ago, I had to leave my career in public relations after developing a chronic illness that causes daily brain fog and cognitive dysfunction. I went from being someone paid to write for a living to someone who could barely string together two coherent thoughts. My ideas for the last decade have stayed stuck in my head because the process of organizing, structuring, and translating them into sentences became overwhelming. AI has changed that. AI helps unblock my thinking, speed up the slog of research, and give structure to the mess in my head. That’s not cheating. That’s adapting. That’s accessibility.
People with learning differences, ADHD, dyslexia, traumatic brain injuries, stroke recovery, or seniors face the same gap between what they think and what they can get onto a page. AI is opening creative doors that have been closed. I think we should make room for that, too.
AI as Cognitive Scaffolding
When my thoughts are scattered, I can dump them into ChatGPT and ask for structure. When a sentence isn’t working, AI helps me reshape it. But the ideas, the choices, the meaning—those remain mine. The tool doesn’t replace the creator; it supports the creator.
This is no different from using spell-check, voice-to-text, translation tools, or physical accessibility devices. We don’t call those things “cheating.” We call them accommodations.
The Real Distinction
For me, and for many people like me, AI isn’t a fake writer. It’s the difference between sharing an idea or watching it die in silence. If you think AI means I didn’t write it, you’ve misunderstood the assignment. I did write it. And I used every tool I could, because I wanted to write it well.
Maybe the conversation shouldn’t be about whether someone used AI, but about what it allowed them to say.
Disclosure: I used the following AI tools to assist me in writing this post: ChatGPT, Grammarly AI