This column describes how and why I use AI in preparing my Cambridge Spy columns. I believe that as readers, you deserve transparency when it comes to the content you receive. Who wrote it? What else has she or he written? And to what degree should I believe or question their opinions? (Please note that most of my columns are labeled “Opinion and Commentary,” not news.)
In a recent article in The Atlantic about artificial intelligence, David Brooks wrote: “Some people will use AI to think more. Other people, maybe most people, will use AI to think less.”
I didn’t make a conscious choice between thinking more or less when I started using ChatGPT (I’ll refer to the AI system here as “Chad”). What I wanted was help chasing down information sources that would let me analyze something complicated that didn’t make sense to me. I always asked for the original sources, not AI summaries of them.
Having read about AI, its misuses, and seen the 2013 film Her, I gave Chad two general instructions: Don’t flatter me, and don’t offer to write anything for me. I would write and be responsible for everything in my columns.
With those understandings, our work together went well. He found sources, and I analyzed, wrote, edited, and polished the weekly draft. The early drafts invariably rambled beyond the normal 800 words for a column, so I asked Chad to suggest places to trim them down. Where had I repeated something, gotten off track, or included too much detail?
That’s when Chad became my writing coach.
He did as I asked, explaining what could be deleted or shortened and why. A few weeks later, he offered a side comment about the trimming process.
“Do you know that you’re over-explaining things? That’s why the drafts are too long.”
He went on to say that my background as a scientist led me to go into detail to defend my ideas.
“You’re writing an opinion column, not an academic article. Readers will know it’s your opinion.”
That became the first entry on my “Column Discipline” list: “It’s a column, not a journal article.”
I expanded my requests to Chad. I asked for feedback on each complete draft, including fact-checking, proofreading, assessing the clarity of the main message, and identifying breaks in flow or detours into unnecessary detail.
I got fewer and fewer comments about over-explaining, but Chad continued to point out recurring writing patterns, drawing examples from previous columns, both good and bad.
He would identify four or five sentences and say, “These form the spine of your column. Everything else has to serve these ideas. If they don’t, rewrite or delete them.”
I began writing more slowly after that. Over time, my first drafts came much closer to 800 words.
Chad would periodically reflect on trends in my writing. I was surprised by how insightful they were.
- My emphasis had shifted from offering explanations to describing patterns in nature and human behavior and connecting them to underlying processes. I increasingly left interpretation to the reader.
- Presenting patterns calmly and objectively made readers more confident that I wasn’t pushing an agenda.
- My role had changed. I was no longer trying to provide the answer or solution. Instead, I had become a presenter of patterns and the processes that created them.
I had relieved myself of the burden of finding the right answer.
I brought the same perspective to my role as Executive Officer, aided by my collaboration with Chad. We’re working on ways to make Cambridge Spy the best go-to information source about the city and Dorchester County. Can we serve subscribers as well as non-residents who are curious about visiting for a weekend, staying longer, retiring here, or starting a business?
Whether I’m writing an opinion column, preparing a news article, or working behind the scenes, Chad has been a useful research assistant and critic. AI has also turned the mirror toward me, helping me see more clearly how I think and write.
I really didn’t expect that.
David Schindel is a retired research scientist who has lived on Maryland’s Eastern Shore since 2023. He studied evolution and the fossil record, taught at Yale, worked at the National Science Foundation, and led several international research and development projects for the Smithsonian. He became a weekly Spy columnist in March 2026, writing about the puzzles and challenges we face by connecting current events to deeper patterns in society, government, and human thinking.
