Setareh Seyedghorban Says AI Cut Writing Time 40% but Risks 6-Point Skill Loss
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Sep 23
Setareh Seyedghorban Says AI Cut Writing Time 40% but Risks 6-Point Skill Loss
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 23
Summary
Setareh Seyedghorban describes AI tools as a useful but uneasy partner, saying they now proofread her writing, assist research and cut tasks that once took hours to minutes.
A Science experiment helps explain the appeal: professionals using AI finished writing tasks 40% faster and produced work rated 18% higher, while narrowing gaps between workers.
For Seyedghorban, a multilingual academic, that matters directly—she says AI replaced thousands of dollars in copyediting costs and made drafting in English faster and cheaper.
The risks, she argues, are not just errors but dependence: AI's "sycophancy" can flatter users into poor decisions, and one study found endoscopists' polyp-detection rates fell 6 percentage points without AI after using it.
Her conclusion is neither rejection nor embrace: AI is becoming unavoidable, but users must keep judgment and original thinking in human hands to avoid deskilling and overreliance.