Editors: Human vs. AI

It’s time to talk about the elephant in the writer’s room: AI. As an editor, I’ll admit that the growing trend of relying on AI for creative endeavors like writing (and editing) scares the hell out of me. But probably not for the reasons you think.

Okay, sure, there’s a nagging worry about AI driving editing prices down to unsustainable levels or completely taking jobs away from editors. Surprisingly, though, that’s not my biggest fear.

AI Gets It Wrong
Yes, I know, humans can get it wrong too. But humans know they can get it wrong and have safety nets in place like double checking their work. In fact, many editors use multiple sources of information like spellcheck or Grammarly (both of which are AIs). So, why can’t authors cut out the middle man and just use AI?

Well, AI doesn’t examine its own work to look for mistakes. It’ll confidently present you with something that may be riddled with errors and claim that nothing else needs to be done. A good editor will make multiple rounds of edits, even fact-checking or looking something up in a grammar textbook.

Not to mention the fact that AI is essentially predictive. It assumes that it knows what word you’re trying to spell or that its synonyms or rephrases still work in the context of your work. Sometimes, it’s right. Other times, not so much. Plenty of people have seen the hilarious ‘edits’ that AI tries to make on work.

AI Can’t Tell You Why
Sometimes, Grammarly and similar programs will give a justification for their suggestions, but they’re usually along the lines of “This is a clearer version of the sentence.” Maybe, but it doesn’t help anyone if we don’t know why!

A human editor gives detailed feedback with clear examples. They won’t say, “Here, use this version instead. No, I won’t elaborate.” They’ll explain the reasoning behind their changes (even for something as simple as noting an illogical sentence that breaks grammar convention) and are always happy to break things down further over a call.

The goal of a human editor isn’t just to perfect one piece of work; it’s to help you become a better writer. How can you do that if you don’t know what went wrong?

AI Doesn’t Think
Sometimes, you write one thing when you mean something completely different. Well, if you send your work to a robot that’s incapable of thought, it won’t know that you meant to say, “it’s raining cats and dogs,” and not, “it’s raining pigs and frogs.” It could tell you that everything is spelled correctly, but AI won’t know the common English saying or that you meant totally different words.

The same thing goes for common typos that still leave correctly spelled words (it vs its) and repeated phrases (the house the house was on fire).  Again, this isn’t to say that AI is never useful, just that it can’t do the things that most people rely on their editors for.