Will artificial intelligence (AI) eliminate the need to write well independently? I think not, and I'm glad that Frank Bruni, agrees with me in his op-ed piece "Our Semicolons, Ourselves" in the December 21, 2023 issue of The New York Times. Bruni makes the powerful point that crafting an excellent sentence, paragraph, and essay leads to deep sense of accomplishment for the writer and a powerful intellectual experience for the reader.
I do believe that AI serves as a fine kickstart for generating ideas, a good tool for producing sentences quickly, and perhaps an indispensable resource for improving quality. But being in command as a writer—doing the work of researching topics, assessing content, taking notes, composing rough drafts, reviewing structure and style—helps students of any major and businesspeople of any profession. Bruni goes a long way toward proving this point in his essay.
