What kids lose when they allow AI to write for them

Students who do not write—or who allow AI to compose for them instead—can lose much more than an assignment grade.  They can lose the ability to think deeply.

Writing in English involves many skills:

• Writers need a working knowledge of specific vocabulary to make their ideas known. They need to know the vocabulary of the field they are writing about.  If AI does their writing, they don’t develop or maintain that vocabulary.
• Writers need the ability to spell words correctly. AI can correct some, maybe most, spelling errors, but it misses many.  If a writer puts his or her name on writing with spelling errors, despite being written or edited by AI, it is the writer who is judged, not AI.
• Writers need mastery English’s complex grammar. If a writer does not advance beyond using simple grammar, that person is identified by readers as a child, or as someone learning English, or as a poorly educated person.  Most of the AI writing I have read uses simpler sentence structures than good writers use.  Plus, there is a sameness to the sentences, a lack of style.
• To write well, writers need to understand their topic Shallow understanding leads to shallow writing.  AI can be a big help in finding information and in organizing it meaningfully.  But if AI does this work, what has the writer learned?  One reason students write is to learn.  They might start with one thesis or theme, and make discoveries as they write, and end with unexpected insights.
• Before they write sentences, writers need to organize concepts meaningfully. Not doing this leads to missing ideas, or irrelevant ideas, or ideas out of order.  AI, a system based on logic, can produce organized writing based on a writer’s input.  But it needs good input. Using AI to write leaves the human mind no keener than before.
• Writers need all these skills in order to think well. Profound thinking comes from wrestling with concepts; from developing ideas coherently, logically, and persuasively; from presenting ideas using sophisticated language and style; from revising and polishing writing; and from analyzing and responding to counterarguments of related ideas.

Writing is a skill, and like any skill, to improve it takes practice.  How do you become a better soccer player?  By letting AI practice for you?  Of course not.  You improve skills by using them and honing them, again and again and again.