You are a better writer than AI

“As an English professor, I hear people at every level talking constantly about the use of AI in writing, but nobody seems to be talking about the thing that matters most: AI cannot write.” That is the first sentence of the accompanying text to this video essay and it does not mince words. Because this topic is personal to its maker, Josh (with parentheses). He makes his love of language, of both its beautiful and baffling expressions, the linchpin of this video essay. That love proves to be one of the best arguments against the use of ChatGPT I’ve encountered. Apart from being a powerful argument against AI-generated writing, this video also finds interesting ways to tweak the desktop video format.

 

Josh uses the best (and the most fun) aspects of the desktop format to good effect. For instance, he starts off with a classic desktop layout, layering several browser windows (and several audio tracks) over one another. Not only is it a smart way to plant elements that will turn up later in the video essay, it is also an apt audiovisual rendering of the confusion that prompted the making of it. In other instances, he uses memes and animated gifs to visualize his feelings, or he playfully retools lyrics as personal commentaries. The sequence where two illustrators each draw a rabbit described by Stephen King is a particularly nice use of multiple windows, because these simultaneous renditions of a shared mental image prove King’s point.

 

But just as often, this piece moves away from the conventional stylings of the desktop video. Indeed, this format can sometimes confuse more than it clarifies because the cluttered visuals and the many layers of content compete for the viewer’s attention. When he needs to make a point in a straightforward way (such as the brief exposé about the recombinant nature of all writing), Josh resorts to a prepared list of screenshots that are neatly organised in a folder. Yes, this reduces the desktop format to a slide presentation of sorts. But also, it presents the argument more elegantly and makes it easier to follow. When he spars with ChatGPT, Josh also uses a pared-down visual style that doesn’t distract from the language. By alternating between the conventional desktop format and cleaner, more structured sequences, he enhances the rhetorical power of the desktop video essay.