A perishable ability? The future of writing in the face of generative artificial intelligence

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential decline of human writing abilities due to the rise of advanced generative AI tools that increasingly produce texts across various domains, raising concerns about a possible loss of this skill.

Contribution

It discusses the historical parallels and future implications of AI-generated text on human writing skills, highlighting potential societal impacts.

Findings

AI tools are increasingly used for diverse text generation

Historical parallels suggest possible loss of writing skills

Future risks include diminished human writing ability

Abstract

The 2020s have been witnessing a very significant advance in the development of generative artificial intelligence tools, including text generation systems based on large language models. These tools have been increasingly used to generate texts in the most diverse domains -- from technical texts to literary texts --, which might eventually lead to a lower volume of written text production by humans. This article discusses the possibility of a future in which human beings will have lost or significantly decreased their ability to write due to the outsourcing of this activity to machines. This possibility parallels the loss of the ability to write in other moments of human history, such as during the so-called Greek Dark Ages (approx. 1200 BCE - 800 BCE).