If writing is thinking then what happens if AI is doing the writing and reading?

What is “thinking”: writing, editing, or neither?

• Several argue writing is not identical to thinking; it’s a tool that exposes gaps, forces clarity, and frees working memory.
• Others stress that editing is closer to thinking than drafting, and that offloading drafting to AI still leaves humans to judge and revise.
• A minority asserts that if AI does all the composing and humans only skim outputs, then either “AI is thinking” or nobody is.

The real problem: people don’t read (and didn’t before AI)

• Many say the article is mostly about corporate reading habits: long memos and docs are routinely ignored, summarized, or skimmed.
• Some claim this predates AI and isn’t worsened by it; others think AI will deepen the pattern of shallow reading and skimming.
• There’s recurring frustration that users don’t read even short UI text or basic manuals, leading to endless “let’s go over the email/doc together” meetings.

AI as writer and reader: the closed loop

• A widely discussed scenario: one person feeds bullets to an LLM to make a polished email; the recipient feeds that email to another LLM for bullet-point summary.
• Concern: this loop can create vast quantities of low-effort “corp-speak” and bury meaningful signal, while further reducing deep engagement.
• Some foresee bifurcation: a small group continues to do real thinking and writing; others follow AI outputs and are gradually automated away.

Benefits: AI as compression, formatting, and access layer

• Several report strong positive experiences using LLMs to:
  • Distill rambling notes or books into concise, well-structured documents.
  • Improve clarity, brevity, and formatting (bullets, LaTeX, diagrams).
  • Help non-native speakers produce more polished communication.
• Others note that AI-powered search over internal docs has increased engagement: people query bots, get explanations, and are pointed to source material.

Cognitive and societal risks

• Worries include: loss of practice in sustained reading and writing, degradation of expertise from over-reliance on AI, uncritical acceptance of AI summaries, and an explosion of low-quality text.
• Some draw analogies to calculators or stimulants: once widely adopted, opting out may feel like a competitive disadvantage.