We are well and truly in the AI era; there’s no point in denying it. Industries, by and large, have had to adjust, rethink hiring, their products and services, and even the nature of work itself over the last few years to accommodate this new reality. And so have we, albeit to some extent kicking and screaming.
Because even though there’s a very logical, very solid argument that the applications of AI’s magical abilities are a net positive (if handled responsibly and not treated like many other transformational technologies before it, as yet another way for the powers that be to wage war across lines drawn in the sand), we, from an editorial point of view, have had a more complicated response to it.
When the first waves of AI-generated content hit our queue, we mostly shunned it vehemently. In our eyes, AI-generated text was immediately synonymous with fluff and had no place in our painstakingly curated corner of the internet. We rejected indiscriminately, and it was easy to do so (AI-generated content was, and in many obvious ways still is, very easy to spot if you know what to look for). But, and it is important to take this with caveats, our stance has evolved over the years.
Back in 2024, when we shared our thoughts on AI-generated content on HackerNoon, we tried to offer alternative use cases for AI in writing, much of which we still stand by.
Summarily: Write by yourself. Use AI as a brainstorming assistant. Use AI as a research assistant. USE AI AS AN ASSISTANT!
But since then, our queue has grown by hundreds of articles every week, propelled in no small part by AI-generated text and our collective obsession with speed. To the point where even some of our favorite writers have begun sacrificing elements of their personality on the altar of quantity.
Now, we can’t sit on a high horse and point a finger at anyone. When the world moves at breakneck speed, powered by AI supercars, there’s a real chance of being left behind. But we maintain that keeping up with the times cannot come at the expense of your personality, of your voice!
If yours and every other thought leader’s article has the exact same structure, rhythm, and cadence, how do we tell you apart? How do we build a relationship with your thought process, your unique context? How do we pick you out of a crowd?
HackerNoon was founded to accommodate a global community of contributors and readers, to platform a myriad of voices, all with unique POVs, all valuable, interdependent parts of a whole that paint a fuller picture of our ecosystem, our world. And that’s still something we live by to this day.
That said, we also understand the paradoxical nature of things. Sometimes human-written content is bad, and AI-assisted content can be good, and we’re ready to compromise.
But before we talk about what good AI-assisted content looks like to us, we must first say that when it ticks all the boxes of our editing protocol, WE WILL ALWAYS PRIORITIZE HUMAN-WRITTEN, PERSONALITY-RICH CONTENT.
But if you must generate content with AI, then we must see signs that you’re fully in the driver’s seat.
If You Absolutely Must, Here's How to Use AI Without Losing Your Voice Entirely
1a. Use AI as an Editor
This is, by some distance, our preferred approach. Get your thoughts on the page first, however messy, disjointed, or grammatically questionable they might be. Then, if you must, bring in AI to clean things up.
Ask it to identify redundancies, improve sentence structure, flag inconsistencies, or point out where your arguments could use more work. But be careful not to let it polish away everything that makes your writing yours.
The peculiar way you choose your words, your sometimes convoluted analogies, and even your tendency to ramble a little before you arrive at your point aren’t necessarily bugs that need to be fixed. Sometimes, they’re the whole point.
1b. Let the first paragraph ALWAYS sound like you
Your opening paragraph is your first opportunity to establish a relationship with the reader. Don't waste it on a generic introduction about how the world is rapidly evolving, how some industry is undergoing an unprecedented transformation, or how something is no longer a luxury but a necessity, or any of the newer variations of AI text templates.
We’ve read hundreds of those introductions and, honestly, we’re tired of them.
Start with an observation, a personal experience, an unpopular opinion, a question you've been wrestling with. Something, anything, that gives us a reason to believe there's a human being with something interesting to say behind the byline.
And if AI helps you with the rest of the piece, make sure the personality you establish in that opening carries through.
2. Think first, AI Later!
Before you even think about opening ChatGPT or your AI assistant of choice, spend some time figuring out what you actually want to say.
What's your central argument? What points do you want to make? What conclusions have you arrived at independently?
You don't necessarily need a fully formed outline or a perfectly articulated thesis, but you should have enough of an idea that you're directing the conversation, not the other way around.
Once you've done that, there's plenty AI can help with. Organizing your scattered thoughts into an outline, suggesting ways to connect two ideas, or even identifying areas that could use more research. You could even take it a step further and ask if AI can find some trends that support your rhetoric or if you need to rethink it.
What we don't want is for you to hand over a topic, ask for 1,500 words, and copy the result into our editor.
We can usually tell, and it casts a skeptical shadow over your work in our eyes.
3a. Bring Your Personal Context to the Table
This one’s especially important for our technical writers and thought leaders. We’ve been pretty clear about what we generally expect from either group:
To reiterate, if you're writing about a product you've built, tell us about YOUR experience. What decisions did you make? What surprised you? What did you try that didn't work? What would you do differently?
If you're writing about an industry trend, tell us what you've observed, what informs your opinion, and why readers should care about your interpretation of events.
AI can help you organize these experiences, but it cannot have them for you. And please, don't let it invent personal anecdotes, technical results, or sources to make your article sound more convincing. We will always ask to see verifiable proof on the page.
3b. Don’t Let AI Dictate Your Article’s Rhythm
Not every article needs three key takeaways, five actionable strategies, and a conclusion that begins with "The future of..."
Not every paragraph needs to be the same length. Not every section needs a subheading. And not every idea needs to be neatly packaged into a bullet point. Sometimes the best way to make an argument is to take the scenic route.
Play around with your structure. Honor your train of thought. Use humor, skepticism, frustration, excitement, whatever comes naturally to you and serves the story.
There’s no universal template for good writing!
The Point is to Sound Like You
To be clear, we’re not advocating for bad writing in the name of authenticity, nor are we suggesting that your article should be rife with imperfections just to prove that it’s human. Good editing matters. So do structure and clarity. We wouldn’t have a team of human editors if we thought otherwise.
All we’re asking is that you don’t sacrifice your personality on the altar of faux efficiency.
By all means, use the tools at your disposal. Experiment with them to your heart’s content. Let them make the writing process easier, and perhaps even better. But don’t surrender the very thing that makes your perspective worth publishing in the first place.
Because if we can swap your byline with twenty others and nobody notices the difference, something has gone terribly wrong.
Ready to put these tips to use?
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