I saw one post recently discussing how AI can’t substitute for judgment. There are many others if you search. And they all make an interesting argument.

But to me what feels more true is that AI can’t substitute for caring.

AI doesn’t care if the answer’s right or wrong. It doesn’t care if you were led down a rabbit hole only to find a dead end. It doesn’t care if a reader wasted their time or got a response that doesn’t actually address their question or need.

However, AI is good at giving feedback, checking details, and letting you create more quickly. AI should be used to help you draft but never publish. Use AI as a thought partner, a research assistant, someone who can help give you synonyms, reword a tough passage, review your work; but never take something AI creates and just publish it.

Why? AI can’t care.

But caring about your reader is the root of communication.

You can feel it when someone doesn’t care about their audience. We’ve all seen those LinkedIn posts full of emojis, or blog posts that have a smell that screams AI. That doesn’t mean the concepts explored are useless. It doesn’t indicate that the poster is incorrect. It doesn’t mean the post is not going to get engagement.

A post that AI creates may get seen or shared. But it also devalues the reader. When someone does this, it means they don’t give a damn. They don’t care enough to realize what they’re putting out there is not valuing their readers’ time.

Why would you pay attention to someone who doesn’t care about your time?

Everyone who reads something online, whether they scan it or read it deeply, is giving you the precious gift of their time.

Even oil we can make more of. But not time.

So use AI as a tool to help you move faster. But don’t forget to care about what you publish. That means carefully reviewing AI output to ensure correctness.

Otherwise you’re burning your reader’s trust.