“Did I Hear You Say Something?” Reflections on a Collaborative Autoethnographic Experiment Using AI to Mimic Researchers’ Writing Voices
Although AI is most often framed as a cognitive tool, its social and psychological effects are arguably much more profound. AI has far-reaching implications for human experience on an emotive, embodied level; it is not simply another technical innovation, since its rapid evolution will likely change our deepest, most cherished beliefs about what it means to be human and how we see ourselves, collectively and individually. It raises unique challenges for those who are invested in forms of creative expression, especially deeply personal, intimate, and introspective writing. Accordingly, this essay describes an autoethnographic experiment in which three authors used AI to mimic their writing voices and to compare their unassisted responses to a research question about the nature and meaning of autoethnographic writing. Results revealed startling insights about the nature of writing identity and the human search for meaning in the age of AI, causing the authors to question just what makes us quintessentially human anyway.