A few years ago, when I started my AI textbook, I would've guessed AI models would've maybe made it irrelevant at the time of publishing (now in 2026) due to them getting way better at a fairly simple task. I was surprised to be wrong.

Today, models haven't gotten much better at non-fiction/technical writing in long-form. This has me worried for AI models' abilities to do genuine open-ended science, one of the core posited benefits of models. Yes, the models can solve known math problems etc. and make awesome connections across fields, but how are they going to build a literature themselves without massively increasing entropy? Being able to write and organize thoughts is crucial to advancing collective knowledge.

I'm sharing how I came to be worried about this in my latest piece on AI & writing.