Part One of a Two-Part Series

The man I was Zooming with was excited to get me on the call because he was sure he had a product every single one of my clients was going to be clamouring for and he wanted to make sure I didn’t miss out on the zillions of dollars he was sure I would be able to make from the AI platform he was selling.

“They can write a book in four hours with this platform,” he boasted.

The problem was:

1. I like the experiences money can buy a lot but it’s not my greatest motivator;
2. I tend to be a little suspicious of anyone who promises I’m going to make “zillions of dollars”; and
3. My clients typically would rather write a book with a high degree of excellence than write it as fast as possible and not many of them are likely to give their power over to another human being, let alone a machine.

It’s true, however, that the world of book writing is undergoing a significant transformation, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) emerging as a powerful new tool. For entrepreneurs, coaches, and consultants looking to share their message and grow their business through a book, AI offers tantalizing possibilities. However, while AI brings undeniable advantages, it also introduces critical challenges that underscore the indispensable role of human author coaching and professional editing services.

The Allure of AI in Authorship

AI’s capabilities can seem like a shortcut to a finished manuscript, and it does excel at tasks that can often challenge human writers, such as:

• Pattern Identification: AI can quickly analyze vast amounts of text to identify trends, structures, and common elements, which can be useful for outlining or topic generation
• Generating Alternatives: Need different ways to phrase a sentence or explore various angles for a concept? AI can churn out options rapidly.
• Accelerating Research and Ideation: AI can quickly pull together information and suggest ideas, giving authors a head start.

These strengths can make AI a valuable assistant, speeding up certain parts of the writing process. But here’s the crucial point: merely assisting is not the same as creating a high-quality, impactful book that genuinely reflects your unique message and builds your business. I’m not anti-AI and I recognize it’s here to stay. However, I do feel that, at this point in time, it’s a poor fit for anyone who wants to write a high-quality book to share their message, support their business, and enhance their reputation for excellence.

The Hidden Pitfalls of Over-Reliance on AI

The drawbacks that I feel come from leaning too heavily on AI for book writing aren’t minor glitches; they are fundamental flaws that can undermine the very purpose of the books my clients, at least, aim to create. For example:

• AI tends to produce suboptimal writing that is dull, repetitive, and bland. In my experience of editing manuscripts clients have generated through AI, I’ve found that the grammar AI tends to produce is excellent. The way it jams ideas together in a sentence tends to be illogical and contextually sometimes downright bizarre.

AI’s decent grammatical capability is deceptive: it often masks the fact that there are important intellectual connections missing in a sentence. A grammatically correct sentence can lull the conscious mind of the reader into thinking the writing is good while, at the same time, a rigorous intellectual analysis of the sentence will flag the fact that there is something wrong with the picture being painted.

For example, a sentence I once edited warned readers against scrolling on their phones before bedtime because this might cause your circadian rhythm to glitch. The sentence read well. But no effort was made to define for readers what a circadian rhythm was or what specifically happens when it’s glitching. Another sentence noted that binaural and trypnaural beats are beneficial supports for our health and although the AI explained the concept of binaural beats, nothing more was mentioned about trypnaural beats. Picky details, perhaps. But good writing is built on detail and clarity.

• Because AI synthesizes existing information (note: AI doesn’t “think”) it tends to default to information that is well known and it reinforces conventional wisdom rather than generate unique, delightful, groundbreaking insights. This is a huge problem for people in the transformational world who want to differentiate themselves through unconventional paradigms.
• And don’t get me started on the hallucinations AI is capable of. I once provided ChatGPT with my resume and asked it to generate a bio for me. It did a pretty good job except for the fact that it credited me with a PhD I’ve never earned.
• AI also does not represent the author’s lived experience. It can fabricate facts and stories and even add in emotional concepts to a narrative but there is often an element of manipulation in the material generated and the bottom line is that your personal story is your personal story. No AI, at this point, has access to the memories, feelings, thoughts, experiences, values, beliefs, and preferences that are resident within you. And, therefore, no AI can accurately write your story or bring your constellation of experiences to your reader.

These are some of the more personal downsides of writing a book with AI. My next blog post widens the circle to look at some of the practical issues you want to examine if you are using AI in book creation.

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