A story in the Wall Street Journal, published in May 2026, highlights a growing problem that writers are facing today. Fear that they will be called out for using AI, or being “AI hacks” because of certain writing style choices.
Key Takeaways
- Human creativity knows no limits: This is the writer’s biggest edge.
- Understand what AI tools do, and use them ethically: Writers should know what qualifies as an AI tool, and be sure to use any AI tools ethically.
- Combine methods to leverage human power with tools: AI need not be an existential threat to professional writers. Rather, combine human strengths with the AI toolkit to boost your productivity and production.
The Mad Dash to Prove Content Isn’t AI-Generated Content
WSJ’s report explains some of the lengths writers will go to to prove their “innocence” when using generative AI to produce copy and content. Professional writers, some of the best in the business, however, explain that this is a bit of a losing battle. Rather, these professional writers I spoke with explain how you can be more authentic and show what your writing process looks like.
People are going to stifle links to prove their humanness. They will even add typos! WSJ’s report explains that people are adopting an “aggressively casual” writing style to avoid punctuation that triggers AI detection software.
Beating the AI-Generated Content Craze With a Healthy AI Relationship
Professionals across the creative space agree that AI is here to stay. Because of this, writers and other creative fields need to learn how to coexist with these tools. The secret is not giving away too much to these programs. Understanding that they are technology is an important step in drawing healthy boundaries around AI.
Understanding AI-Generated Content: What it is, What it Does, What it Can’t Do
Heather Asiyanbi, founder of Pens and Proof, says she hopes this push for a more humanized writing style doesn’t come at the expense of the semicolon. She loves the clean break that it gives to a sentence. Asiyanbi’s experience as a professional journalist at Racine County Eye gives her perspective. She finds that people need to define what AI is.
“I think recording the transcript and then reading through the transcript after the meeting is good practice,” Asiyanbi told nDash. She uses a tool called Otter.ai to take transcripts. This tool helps her make notes faster than shorthand. She will check her AI assistant by taking her own notes of the meeting, making sure to note who said what. She also uses the tool to “read back” statements and ask questions for context.
Asiyanbi observes how people think of AI differently from how it is. For example, when people accuse writers of “sounding like AI,” they are talking about generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. She points out many tools that use AI to perform tasks, such as Netflix’s watch recommendations.
The secret, in Asiyanbi’s view, is how you use AI tools. Outsourcing all your processes to AI writing machines is not a good practice. However, using tools to help you proofread or structure a story more effectively is a good application of the tool. The quality of the work and the reason for using the tool are more important than going to impossible lengths to beat the system.
What We Mean By AI-Generated Content and “AI Slop”
The AI slop phrase springs from the mass production of solely AI-generated content, devoid of soul or flavor. AI slop is the product of giving the AI tool, in this case, usually a generative AI, too much control over the creative process. This is the bedrock basis of what AI cannot do. It cannot replace humans entirely. Thought leaders in the professional writing space weigh in on the potential humans have to give amid all the AI hype.
Human Creativity Beyond AI-Generated Content
Getting clear about the ethical use of AI means recognizing what it cannot do. Sandy Cohen, a former Associated Press entertainment journalist turned health writer, sees AI as a way to boost human reach, but realizes there are things only humans can do that AI can never replace. While AI is good at assisting with tasks like drafting social media posts and small scripts that need to be generated quickly, Cohen says that even these uses require heavy human editing.
“Human curiosity is unmatched by AI,” Cohen said. She finds that some skills and writing tasks will always require a human’s ingenuity. For example, in journalism, a human reporter can sit with a person and hear their story, as the human source processes their grief. An AI robot cannot sit with another human and empathize naturally the same way. Some human experiences have to be shared with other humans.
Building Creativity Beyond AI-Generated Content
Writers will have big advantages moving forward by building their creativity. Human curiosity and ingenuity can be built organically. Unlike AI, which relies on data centers, humans can build their ingenuity from everything.
“Human imagination can go anywhere,” Cohen remarks, noting that while managers can use AI tools to streamline some tasks, they cannot manufacture human responsiveness. This is your edge today. For writers, especially those in highly creative fields like fiction, human imagination goes infinitely further than only learning the latest AI or software tool. Writers who dial in to their creativity, rather than cut corners to prove their humanity, are winners here.
The Science of Creativity
Creativity is defined as the ability to “bring something new into existence,” Britannica writes. Experts who research human creativity find that creativity can’t exist without authenticity. If authenticity is the goal, then creativity will support it. This is due to how the brain’s neuroscientific processes develop creative thoughts.
The Brain Science Behind Creative Spark
Neuroscientists explain that your brain has two creativity contributing modes. One is called the default mode network (DMN) and the other is the executive control network (ECN). Your DMN is the brain mode that supports passive actions, like daydreaming while walking. Your ECN, however, is the brain mode that helps with analysis. When you are building creative thinking, getting these two brain modes to talk to each other will help with the practical and the passive functions that make creative magic. Making the Magic Happen
Experts across the gamut of brain science find that certain habits can train the brain to boost creativity.
Brain Boot Camp: Training Creative Habits Beyond AI-Generated Content
While AI’s hostile takeover is a newer problem, the concept of brain training isn’t. Neuroscientists have been documenting this for decades. As early as 2010, Harvard Extension School psychology professor Shelley Carson told the Boston Globe that creativity was a leading driver in hiring and that creative excellence courses were being launched at elite schools. Carson authored a book decades ago that covered her views on unlocking greater creativity. She broke this down into seven steps, backed by brain science, that a person can build into their workflows to tap into their full potential. These steps Carson calls “brainsets“.
The shorthand for these brainsets is as follows:
- Absorb: Where you open your mind to new info.
- Envision: Where you think visually and in hypothetical terms.
- Connect: Connecting different objects or concepts.
- Reason: Mapping out plans and decisions.
- Evaluate: Judging the usefulness of ideas.
- Transform: Taking negative feelings and using them for self-expression.
- Stream: Entering a flow state of work.
Creativity at Work breaks down the steps you take to apply Dr. Carson’s brainsets. Each one of these brainsets taps into a different human behavior or skill. To actively use the brainsets’ concepts, you apply them with intention. So, for the absorb brainset, you take in the world around you and look for the “aha!” moment. Envision is the space where you put your imagination to work. The idea in this state is to think about “what if?” scenarios. With connect, you link up things that are pretty different from each other and find solutions to open-ended problems.
How Writers Can Practice This
Many writers have been using similar concepts for years without realizing it. For example, writing coaches have long advised new writers to read work they admire to improve their craft. This is a similar concept to Carson’s absorb brainset.
Combining Methods and Tools
Writers have developed their own shorthand for practicing creativity. Brain scientist Livia Blackburne broke down this brain science of writing, comparing what she called logical versus intuitive writing. She found that her writing process changed over time, from a more intuitive or daydreaming method to one shaped more by logic.
Human writers evolve in more nuanced ways than AI. Because they have a greater creative potential, humans have greater leverage here. In the future of professional writing, thought leaders anticipate that pros will blend their creative edge with a judicious use of AI tools as assistants.
Asiyanbi notes, tools like note-taking apps and predictive analytics, such as Netflix watch recommendations, are AI you don’t see up front. Writers can adopt these tools on the backend to scale productivity. When it comes to ingenuity, this is something writers can’t outsource to a machine, nor should they. Rather, combining humans’ gifts and tools with AI is the future of creativity at scale.
Being More Human
In a nutshell, the race to beat AI in writing is not about “sounding” more human. It’s about being more human. Beating the rat race to outmatch AI only works if the human writer can tap into their creative potential in ways that go beyond AI’s capabilities.
About the Author
Rachel Brooks writes a variety of business articles and website copy on topics such as technology, computer software, marketing, advertising, and more. To learn more about Rachel or to have her write for your brand, sign up for nDash today!