I’m still writing on my new book on Chinese spelling and grammar (Hànyǔ Pīnyīn), day in day out. Turns out it’s much more work than anticipated. Turns out it takes like, forever, and then some. But, what do they say, “even the softest water will wear away the hardest rock.”

Also, my recent decision not to use AI, or at least, to use it only as a grammar and spellchecker, but not as a writing aid, I like it a lot. I feel this is giving my writing a lot of pleasure and authenticity back. It may not be as polished, and not smooth and all, but at least I don’t sound like… well… AI.

I’ve read on national news from the USA, that there’s a problem with AI and students, and that too much of their work nowadays is AI generated, and that they increasingly have difficulties with writing their own texts, and also speaking. Say, Wild Wild West! Reminds me of how we imagine they spoke in the days past, as Owen Wister did, in The Virginian:

“But Arizona, seh,” he continued, “it cert’nly has a mos’ deceivin’ atmospheah. Another man told me he had seen a lady close one eye at him when he was two minutes hard run from her.” This time the Virginian gave Buck the whip. “What effect,” I inquired with a gravity equal to his own, “does this extraordinary foreshortening have upon a quart of whiskey?” “When it’s outside yu’, seh, no distance looks too far to go to it.”

So, I ran some of my new books’ text through an AI detector, and it pleasantly validated my expectations:

“So that thing has got around,” murmured the Virginian. “Well, it wasn’t worth such wide repawtin’.”