A Deluge of Poor Writing

Cal Newport, on using AI for academic paper writing:

Papers that are more difficult to read might be worth it if AI increased the amount of good science being produced. But this doesn’t seem to be the case. Organization Science is desk-rejecting (e.g., rejecting a paper before even sending it to peer reviewers) nearly 70% of manuscripts that made heavy use of AI. This number drops to 44% for papers written without AI.

As I discussed on our recent obligatory Leader Fables episode on AI, this tracks with my own experience when reading professional writing. While the amount of written material I review has increased dramatically, the quality of the writing has decreased. It’s decreased to the point where I often ask for revisions or more succinct summaries after only a cursory review.

Clear writing is a byproduct of clear thinking. Put another way: writing is thinking. When we outsource our writing to the robots, we run the risk of blunting the very thinking that, as knowledge workers, makes us valuable.