Yang, K., Raković, M., Liang, Z., Yan, L., Zeng, Z., Fan, Y., Gašević, D., & Chen, G. (2024). Modifying AI, enhancing essays: How active engagement with generative AI boosts writing quality (No. arXiv:2412.07200). arXiv.
Our analysis showed that writers who frequently modified GAI-generated text—suggesting active engagement in higher-order cognitive processes—consistently improved the quality of their essays in terms of lexical sophistication, syntactic complexity, and text cohesion. In contrast, those who often accepted GAI-generated text without changes, primarily engaging in lower-order processes, saw a decrease in essay quality.
Once again, writing with AI isn’t a case of asking it to write for you. The real advantage for knowledge workers using AI comes from using it as a writing partner – or more accurately – a thinking partner. When I ask someone if I can bounce ideas off of them, I’m not asking them to do my thinking for me. I’m asking them to provide an input into my own thinking.
And this is the value of working with AI; it can help get us out of our own heads and enhance our thinking.