This episode examines 2023 research from Miami University of Ohio where students spent an entire semester experimenting with AI in their writing processes—often in more sophisticated ways than many professionals.
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Key Highlights
We keep asking: "Does using AI diminish my agency as a writer?" But the Miami University research reveals we should be asking: "How can I exercise rhetorical intelligence to collaborate more effectively?"
Agency isn't about doing everything yourself—it's about being the author of your decisions. Understanding your goals, choosing your methods, and maintaining control over the meaning you create.
Three Ways AI Actually Enhanced Student Agency
Structural Agency: One student couldn't get ChatGPT to include a crucial point in an executive summary. This forced him to examine his own writing, where he discovered he'd buried the important concept without proper development. The AI revealed a weakness he could then fix.
Creative Agency: A self-described procrastinator used AI to overcome the "blank page" problem, getting detailed project outlines that helped her move from paralysis to productivity.
Life Agency: A mother of four maintaining a 4.0 GPA had been spending excessive time and money on tutoring and tools like Grammarly. AI consolidated these resources, giving her time back for family and self-care.
The F1 Racing Revelation
Students initially saw AI like getting in a car—fast but removing the "exercise" of writing. But consider this: When Brad Pitt gets into an F1 race car, does he have less agency than a marathon runner?
He has tremendous agency—just different skills and the ability to accomplish things impossible on foot. You can drive lazily, but you can also drive with incredible skill. That skilled collaboration? That's agency in action.
What Content Professionals Can Learn
The 2023 classroom became an experimental laboratory where students could explore AI integration without the company restrictions and high-stakes environments many practitioners face. Their discoveries:
Rhetorical intelligence (understanding context, audience, ethics, and meaning-making) remains uniquely human
Effective AI collaboration requires more intentional decision-making, not less
The goal isn't avoiding AI but developing the skills to collaborate skillfully
Key insight from the research: Whether you're writing solo, collaborating with AI, or using any other tools, all modes of writing require and can demonstrate agency when approached with rhetorical intelligence—the conscious application of context awareness, audience analysis, and ethical decision-making.
The question isn't whether AI collaboration diminishes your agency—it's whether you're exercising rhetorical intelligence in how you approach that collaboration.
Want to dive deeper into structured approaches to AI collaboration? Check out my PromptOps course lessons on systematic prompt design and content operations.
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