Writing in the Age of AI - Gemini Notebook’s Steven Johnson with Nicholas Thompson

Steven Johnson spent decades figuring out the best ways to turn his research into words on the page. Now, he’s adapting those methods for Gemini Notebook, Google’s AI-powered interactive bibliography. (Until recently, it was called NotebookLM.) But in building a tool designed to synthesize ideas, is there a risk of taking humans too far out of the writing process? In conversation with The Atlantic’s Nicholas Thompson, Johnson discusses the best practices, ethics, and limitations of using AI as a collaborator.

The Atlantic has a licensing agreement with Gemini Notebook, and Google also advertises with The Atlantic. This episode was not a part of those deals.

Produced independently of The Atlantic’s editorial staff. Supporting sponsor: PwC.

(00:00) Introduction

(05:10) The evolution of Steven's writing process 

(08:22) Managing the "iceberg" of research

(11:45) The ethics of AI-assisted writing

(19:02) What happens when AI becomes as good at writing as humans

(24:17) Why some genres could change drastically with AI

(29:10) How AI might undo polarization 

(34:45) Designing educational guardrails for AI

(44:26) What will AI do to writing styles?

(49:10) Licensing author personas and protecting creators

(56:52) A rule of thumb for how to use AI 

(58:00) What Steven would do if he had an unlimited budget to invest in AI

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