Drawing the Line on AI Writing: A Two-by-Two Chart for Where AI Belongs

An Economist writer proposes a two-by-two chart for judging AI writing, plotting how much of the writing process AI handles against how mechanical versus ideas-led the final text needs to be. Publishing raw one-shot prompt output sits at the top of AI involvement, while using AI only to catch typos and poor syntax sits at the bottom; administrative emails are the most mechanical format and novels the most ideas-led. The author argues AI should not intrude far into writing meant to spread ideas or change minds, but sees no reason to withhold it from a Terms and Conditions page.