Category: Embracing AI

Him

July 6, 2026

Rodney was halfway through his Manhattan the other evening when I made the mistake of telling him about yet another conversation I’d had with ChatGPT at the library that morning. I’d gone there convinced I was writing a chapter about high blood pressure. An hour later, I realized I wasn’t. More accurately, Chat had spent…

What Self-Publishing Taught Me About AI

June 11, 2026

The dog in the photo accompanying this post appears to have appointed itself Chief Gatekeeper.  Every industry has them. Publishing has agents. Academia has tenure committees. Bookstores have buyers. Social media has influencers. And now the writing world has people conducting purity tests on AI. I’ve spent much of my career bumping into various forms…

Timing is Everything

June 5, 2026

There’s not a parent alive who doesn’t remember the day their child becomes a parent. I don’t mean the day you overhear your son or daughter lecturing their own child. I mean the day they start lecturing you about your behaviour. I’ve had more than a few of those moments in the past year, usually over AI, and usually…

Newspapers Need to Stop Pretending AI Doesn’t Exist

May 11, 2026

The other day, I received an automated e-mail response from an editor at a major Canadian newspaper. Along with the paper’s writing guidelines, it came with this warning: “Please confirm that no AI was used at any stage in the creation of the article.” No AI. At any stage. In the creation. Think about that for a…

Are AI writing tools like performance-enhancing steroids?

April 13, 2026

It’s next to impossible these days to avoid the panic being generated, no pun intended, by AI writing tools.  One day, a book is reportedly sent to the chipper after software decides it was generated by AI. The next, a writer is being scolded for publishing too much and too quickly, thanks to the help…

Brain extensions

March 10, 2026

If hair extensions can give you the hairstyle you covet, what might brain extensions do for you? Help you remember a phone number or help you write an entire book? Would you be offloading information, like your grocery list, or outsourcing the creation of the list in the first place?  Welcome to the latest round of arguments over how…