AI Didn’t Start This. We Did.

We were doing this before AI existed.

Editing ourselves into something more acceptable. Choosing the sentence that would land better over the one that was actually true.

AI just made it faster.

The loss of self in writing didn't begin with a new tool. It began earlier, with an audience, yes, but also with something internal. Long before AI, we were already choosing the version of ourselves that would be better received.

I use AI all the time, especially because I write in my second language. It helps me move faster through a text.

The problem is not that the tool changes the sentence. The problem is how quickly you stop noticing that it is also changing you while you use it.

Which brings me to the only question worth asking.

Not: did you use AI?
But: who is leading while you use it?

I asked my father about AI early on, when it still wasn't clear what was happening.

He said: I don't fully understand it yet. But one thing is clear — the smart ones will become many times smarter. And the fools, many times more foolish.

That's it. That was the whole answer.

I want to be in the first category.

That is the question I keep returning to in The Second Draft.