John Warner, author of More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI believes there are important distinctions to be made between the writing of humans and the syntax generation of large language models like ChatGPT. These distinctions are at the root of what he believes we should value, the fact that human communication comes from our “unique intelligences” and that humans are not reducible to patterns and predictions. In this presentation he will talk about how to navigate the tensions that generative AI has introduced into our schools, workplaces, and lives in order to preserve essential and meaningful experiences related to our deepest human selves.

In the book, Warner argues that generative AI programs like ChatGPT not only can kill the student essay but should, since these assignments don’t challenge students to do the real work of writing. To Warner, writing is thinking — discovering your ideas while trying to capture them on a page — and feeling — grappling with what it fundamentally means to be human. The fact that we ask students to complete so many assignments that a machine could do is a sign that something has gone very wrong with writing instruction. More Than Words calls for us to use AI as an opportunity to reckon with how we work with words — and how all of us should rethink our relationship with writing.