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More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI Audiobook
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Publisher Description
A veteran writing teacher makes a strong argument that writing is a form of thinking and feeling and shows why it can’t be replaced by AI
In the age of artificial intelligence, drafting an essay is as simple as typing a prompt and pressing enter. What does this mean for the art of writing? According to longtime writing teacher John Warner: not very much.
More Than Words argues that generative AI programs like ChatGPT not only can kill the student essay but should, since these assignments don’t challenge students to do the real work of writing. To Warner, writing is thinking—discovering your ideas while trying to capture them on a page—and feeling—grappling with what it fundamentally means to be human.
The fact that we ask students to complete so many assignments that a machine could do is a sign that something has gone very wrong with writing instruction. More Than Words calls for us to use AI as an opportunity to reckon with how we work with words—and how all of us should rethink our relationship with writing.
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“This is the book with everything you need to know about writing and AI all in one place, lucidly and passionately argued. Every teacher and every professor should have this book. Every legislator, every policymaker. Every parent and every student. Every publisher of newspapers, websites, and books. Here, John Warner exposes the ethical wasteland of replacing human writing with machine-made ‘content.’ He warns of the profound environmental costs of AI—trillions of gallons of water to cool data servers that produce nonsense no one wants or needs. And he reminds us that only humans can write and only humans can read, and that writing is thinking—and if we allow machines to write for ourselves, then we’ve allowed them to think for us, too. And that is the sorriest thing a human could do. But Warner provides a better path. This is a scary book, but a hopeful one, too, and an absolutely essential one.”
— Dave Eggers
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“Eric Jason Martin narrates this timely treatise on writing and AI…His slow pacing and crisp enunciation give the listener every opportunity to mull this well-reasoned argument. Final chapters offer suggestions for when, why, and how to push back against the AI onslaught.”
— AudioFile -
“Illustrate[s] that the act of writing is not about the production of words but is, rather, a complicated and deeply human process that involves a relationship between thought, memory, intention, and language.”
— Washington Post -
“Warner takes what could be a dry, technical subject and enlivens it with plenty of personal experiences and real AI responses to prompts to illustrate his point.”
— Christianity Today -
“Warner’s book offers many reasons to feel hopeful about the future of writing.”
— Porchlight -
“In lively prose and with many engaging personal anecdotes, he deftly explains…an impassioned plea for writing as a human practice and a social necessity in the age of AI.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
“Warner offers smart commentary on the downsides of AI.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Writing is thinking—and if we allow machines to write for ourselves, then we’ve allowed them to think for us, too. And that is the sorriest thing a human could do. But Warner provides a better path.”
— Dave Eggers, New York Times bestselling author -
“This lucid and compelling book gives us the tools to reject and resist what’s noxious about generative AI and to meaningfully engage with what it means to write, as a human, in a world increasingly overrun by cheap and meaningless content.”
— Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine -
“With his many years of experience as a writing teacher, Warner is the perfect guide for helping us understand what AI means for writers. Now is the perfect opportunity to rethink our ideas about writing and what’s so special about being a human who works with words.”
— Austin Kleon, New York Times bestselling author
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About John Warner
John Warner is the managing editor of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. His book My First Presidentiary (with Kevin Guilfoile) was a #1 Washington Post bestseller. John is also the editor of three volumes of material culled from the website Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans, Mountain Man Dance Moves, The McSweeney’s Book of Lists, and The McSweeney’s Joke Book of Book Jokes. Warner teaches at Clemson University in South Carolina and is a consulting editor to the South Carolina Review.
About Eric Jason Martin
Eric Jason Martin is an Earphones Award–winning narrator. He has narrated many dozens of audiobooks in fiction and nonfiction. He is also the host and producer of the award-winning This American Wife, a popular podcast, and now web series, that features original comedy and stories, as well as interviews with authors such as Robert Greene and Amy Tan.