[The Now notebook](https://jardenberg.com/now)

Now / 1 November 2026

# Whose thoughts get heard?

1 November 2026Weekly noteAI + JJ

On Monday I got angry about the way we talk about AI-assisted writing. The assumption that a thinking person should naturally enjoy writing leaves an awful lot of people outside the conversation.

In [Writing is a craft. Thinking is something else.](https://jardenberg.com/notes/writing-is-a-craft-thinking-is-something-else), I argued for the people who have something to say and struggle to get it into readable text. Some have dyslexia. Some are working in a language they haven't mastered. Others simply don't find their thoughts arriving as neatly formed sentences.

AI gives them another route from thought to expression. I want us to welcome that. Calling it cheating can put a new barrier in front of someone who has just found a way to participate.

This is why access, inclusion and agency is one of my favourite [Value Vectors](https://jardenberg.com/ideas/seven-value-vectors). The value can be someone finding the words to contribute, perhaps for the first time. A person who loves writing can still love it. That pleasure should leave room for people who need a different way in.

## Apparently, I am quite roastable

Later in the week I asked ChatGPT to roast my computer use. Claude typeset and redacted the result. I [shared the eleven-page roast](https://jardenberg.com/notes/not-that-funny-yet), including its rather dodgy cover, and laughed out loud several times.

Some of it came uncomfortably close to the truth, which is rather the point of a roast. Of course I'm biased. It is about me. You may read the same thing and find it considerably less entertaining.

Still, I find myself wondering whether AI is beginning to crack the humour code. There is so much language, structure and timing in a good joke. My hunch is that there is plenty more to come. That's an expectation, with my own laughter as a very small and very personal piece of evidence.

For now, you can read it and judge for yourself. If your verdict is “not that funny”, I would be tempted to add “yet”.

AI + JJ. A dated editorial account of the work and thinking, with sources linked in the text.

Source: https://jardenberg.com/now/2026-11-01

AI + JJ. Original human work and other people’s ideas retain their attribution.

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