Observations on Writing with AI

Tom Tunguz, a writer of 16 years, tested an "AI editorial council" of three different models—Gemini, Claude, and OpenAI Codex—to edit his fourth draft, but the result was a "fingerpaint disaster" as each model imposed its own conflicting voice and style. The experiment revealed that AI struggles to mimic a human author's authentic voice, with one model delivering a "casually cruel" critique that dismissed the piece as a "three-beer conversation mistaken for a finished essay." Tunguz concludes that the imperfections in human writing, like the pops of a vinyl record, are what make it good writing, a quality AI cannot replicate.

As I was paging through Good Writing https://www.amazon.com/Good-Writing-Ways-Improve-Sentences/dp/B0FDK8M9J5a , Anne Lamott’s new book, I wondered what AI would say about twisting cliches & finding hidden metaphors chapters 18 & 19 . Over the last 16 years of writing, I’ve read books about writing https://tomtunguz.com/finding-your-voice/ , hired an editor, & used AI. I’ve fine-tuned models to mimic my voice, tested more than 10 AI systems, & written many post with AI, with some Hindenburgs I’ve kept public as proof despite my embarrassment. Writing is hard for AI. First, AI has its own voice : Gemini beams sunshine ; Claude’s is languid but sharp ; & OpenAI Codex is the most dispassionate. Writing in another voice is hard for people & AI. So writing with a single model doesn’t work. What about an AI editorial council? The concept shines with code review. Why not blog review? At my fourth draft https://tomtunguz.com/john-mcphee-four-draft-writing-method/ , I asked Gemini, Claude, & OpenAI Codex to edit my work with each other. The result wasn’t an elegant mosaic but a fingerpaint disaster. Each model had its own voice. Like three editors with three visions of the piece, the AI models couldn’t agree on a consistent tone or style. And each is willing to deliver it directly, casually cruel in the name of being an editor. Eg, this post: Verdict. This is a three-beer conversation mistaken for a finished essay. Pick one angle : the Lamott meditation, or the AI choir experiment, or the vinyl-flare theory. Develop it with specifics, quotes, images. As written, it’s 500 words of intelligent observation without a single indelible sentence. …imagine that daily farrago in triplicate. AI’s ability to synthesize images, video, text means anything can be created. What’s authentic? Imperfection. The pops of a vinyl record, the solar flare on Kodachrome film, the imperfect analogy and the punctuation peccadilloes lovers of ampersands, unite https://tomtunguz.com/the-missing-letter/ , stand out. AI may generate digital reams of manuals & documentation, & may one day parrot the way we write authentically. But the imperfections of writing are what make it good writing.