I’ve experimented with AI. It’s impressive. And I know we need to embrace technology and take advantage of its efficiencies….

Or do we? I say we take a pause. Even rewind. Why are we assigning bots all the fun? I love writing. I want my grandkids to love writing. I say we get the bots to iron, cook and do the dishes. I’ve seen them vacuuming and cutting the grass, driving … They do a decent job. Let’s have them focus on manual tasks. It’s not as though they’ve mastered them. There’s clearly more work to be done.

Maybe I’m naive (OK, for sure I’m naive), but why would we assign thinking and creating to robots? Sure, there’s a role AI can play in research, data collection and list creation … probably even in ideation and first drafts. But let’s be careful not to forfeit our right to expression. Or our children’s. Writing is clay. It’s freedom. It’s power. And we may need to think about getting it on some kind of an endangered list.

Don’t let blank books and pens and pencils go the way of the 8-track player.