There’s Nothing for It to Copy

And that's the point.

I don’t think people realise what they’re actually looking at when they see me using AI.

The assumption underneath most reactions is that this is about shortcuts or speed. That only makes sense if you think my work is built the same way as everyone else’s. It isn’t, and it never has been.

I come from a group of people who, for most of history, weren’t out here producing work like this at all. We were written about. Managed. Hidden. Explained. Not heard in our own words. I’m part of the first generation that actually gets to exist publicly like this. So when people jump to the idea that this must be copying something, they’re missing something obvious. There isn’t anything for it to copy. If it sounds different, that’s because it is. That’s the point.

Most people are using AI to produce more of what already exists. Faster content. Cleaner versions of voices you’ve already heard. More volume of the same thing. That’s not what I’m doing. I’m not trying to sound like something that already exists. I’m trying to get something out that hasn’t had the space to exist like this before.

From the outside, my life looks like a speed problem. It takes me longer to say things. Longer to write them. Longer to exist inside a system that rewards how quickly you can produce something. Of course I’m going to use the tools that let me keep up. That part is straightforward.

But AAC was never just a speed problem.

AAC is autonomy. It’s being able to say whatever I want, however I want, whenever I want, to whoever I want. The second you introduce something that can generate what I might say for me, you’re not just making me faster. You’re shifting control.

That’s the line. Most people don’t even realise it’s there.

This isn’t just an AAC problem. It just shows up here first. This is one of the only places where you can actually see what’s being traded while it’s happening. Speed over control. Efficiency over authorship. Convenience over autonomy. Most people won’t notice that trade in their own lives until it’s already built in. Suggestions start to feel normal. Normal turns into default. Default quietly starts deciding what gets said.

I rely on this. Not in a productivity way. In a if I want to keep up with the world, I don’t really have a choice kind of way. I can feel the difference when I don’t use it. How long everything takes. How much energy it costs. How quickly I fall behind.

So when people say “just do it yourself,” they’re not asking me to work harder. They’re asking me to accept less. Less output. Less participation. Less presence. I’ve spent my entire life fighting against exactly that.

And that’s exactly why I can’t just hand control over either.

I’ve been writing for over twenty years. Long before AI. Long before any of these tools. Every sentence has always taken effort. Every word has always been a decision. If anything, this is the first time the gap between what I have to say and what I can actually get out into the world has started to close.

But the voice still has to come from me. Not because I’m precious about it. Because the whole point of having a voice is that it’s yours.

If I’ve spent my entire life fighting to have one, I’m not handing it over now just because we’ve found a faster way to use it.