How to Help Teens Find Their Personal Voice When Writing With AI

There's too much talk about *detecting* AI and not enough about how individual voice and personal expression in writing balances out any use of AI tools. Here is how to help teens develop their voice.

There appears to be a lot of chatter in the media, at schools, and with families about “detecting” AI in written school work. Are teens and college-age students using AI exclusively for school work, the media ask. Can teachers tell if homework is AI generated? Is using ChatGPT to write actually cheating? Will AI signal the end of learning as we know it? Can work *sound* like AI even when LLMs are not used?

And so on…

But maybe there is a different way to look at this dilemma right now?

As a trained journalist with decades of writing experience under my belt, I’m comfortable using AI precisely because I know my own personal voice. Much in the same way that I would digest and include research found via a Google search, AI is research and source material. In fact, while I find AI to be enormously useful, it can sometimes be a tedious companion to writing.

The point is… AI or no AI, teaching our children to cultivate, appreciate, and employ their own personal voice should be something we enc…