I asked AI to write a story like me. It sucked.

Eric Boyd
7 min readApr 5, 2023

So does that mean I suck?

Photo by Tianyi Ma on Unsplash

I am far from a luddite. Integrating technology into my everyday life is a normal and usually fun thing for me. I like wearing noise-cancelling earbuds when the bus is too loud, I like having a smartwatch tell me to get up and walk a few more steps by the end of the hour. I use a phone app that gamifies my daily habits and, as a result, I’ve been better about cleaning my cat’s litter box and writing in my journal. If I don’t, the ‘lil guy on my screen will die! I literally own a smart jacket because it amuses me to leave my phone somewhere in a room and make it play music by inconspicuously tapping my sleeve; it freaks people out and that’s funny. The idea of supplementing or improving myself through tech doesn’t bother me, yet AI writing is proving to be a bridge too far— not because it is bad, but because I’m now afraid I’m bad.

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My first taste of generative text AI was just last week, but I’ve used different software programs and applications to write for years. In the past I have pasted work into websites like Hemingway Editor to make sure my sentences are neither too complex nor too simple. I’ve used predictive programs to…

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Eric Boyd
Eric Boyd

Written by Eric Boyd

Work in Joyland, Guernica, and The Offing. Winner of a PEN Prison Writing Award. Working on a novel. // linktr.ee/ericboyd

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