By Saeed Mirshekari
September 24, 2024
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Is Gen-AI Really New? Or Just Newly Accessible?
For the last few years, the rise of generative AI (Gen-AI) has sparked both amazement and anxiety. Executives are writing keynote speeches with ChatGPT. Students are submitting AI-assisted essays. Startups are deploying AI-generated marketing copy. It's a revolution, or so it seems.
But is it really?
The truth is more nuanced. While Gen-AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini feel new to the general public, the underlying behaviors and use cases they’re enabling are not. In fact, much of what Gen-AI is praised—or criticized—for doing has been a staple of human society for generations. What’s new is not the existence of this capability, but its accessibility, scale, and speed.
This blog explores the history and implications of this shift, especially in how executive communication has long relied on ghostwriters and speechwriters—practices that Gen-AI has now democratized.
Table of Contents
- The Long History of Ghostwriting
- Executive Communication Before Gen-AI
- What Gen-AI Has Changed
- Democratization: Everyone Has a Writer Now
- Is It Ethical? Is It Authentic?
- How This Impacts Leadership
- The New Literacy: Prompting and Editing
- The Myth of Originality
- Conclusion: It’s Not New—It’s a Shift in Power
1. The Long History of Ghostwriting
Long before ChatGPT, leaders had help crafting their words.
Presidents had speechwriters. CEOs had communications teams. Authors had ghostwriters. Rappers had lyricists working in the background. Entire careers were built around putting eloquent words into the mouths of others.
Famous examples abound:
- John F. Kennedy’s iconic “Ask not what your country can do for you” speech was written by Ted Sorensen.
- Barack Obama often worked closely with Jon Favreau, his speechwriter during both campaigns.
- Ronald Reagan, though a former actor with communication skills, had a full team fine-tuning his messages.
- Corporate CEOs rarely write their annual letters to shareholders; they are edited, if not entirely written, by their investor relations or marketing teams.
So when we talk about Gen-AI writing a memo or a pitch deck for a C-level executive, we must ask: Is that any different from what they were doing before?
The answer is yes—and no.
2. Executive Communication Before Gen-AI
In high-stakes environments, communication has always been a group effort.
Before Gen-AI:
- A CEO would have access to communication advisors, PR agencies, or in-house marketers.
- An academic might lean on research assistants to clean up language or structure.
- A political candidate would work with teams of consultants to polish every line they spoke in public.
- A book author could pay $30,000–$100,000 to have their nonfiction book ghostwritten.
The problem was that this level of support wasn’t accessible to everyone. It was a luxury.
The ability to articulate vision, sound polished, or seem insightful wasn’t just about brilliance—it was about resources.
3. What Gen-AI Has Changed
Gen-AI has taken a luxury and made it a utility.
Now, anyone with an internet connection can:
- Get a polished first draft of a speech in seconds.
- Rewrite an awkward email with empathy and authority.
- Generate 10 different taglines for a marketing campaign.
- Summarize a book they didn’t read for a class presentation.
- Script an entire podcast episode or YouTube video.
This is not entirely new behavior—it’s just happening at scale, speed, and zero marginal cost.
The real disruption is that the power of ghostwriting has been democratized.
4. Democratization: Everyone Has a Writer Now
Before Gen-AI, only a small percentage of people could afford to outsource their communication.
Now, with tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot:
- A startup founder in Nairobi can write a pitch with the same polish as one in Silicon Valley.
- A high school student in Ohio can generate ideas and outlines just like a private school student with a college essay coach.
- A first-generation professional can polish cover letters to compete with legacy applicants who had mentors edit their materials.
That’s not cheating—that’s leveling the playing field.
Of course, not everyone uses these tools ethically or effectively. But the core idea is revolutionary:
Writing support is no longer a gatekept resource.
5. Is It Ethical? Is It Authentic?
One of the biggest debates around Gen-AI in communication is about authenticity.
If a CEO’s speech is written by ChatGPT, is it still their vision? Their voice?
We rarely asked this when human teams were behind the words. Yet somehow, when it’s AI-generated, people bristle.
The distinction lies in agency and involvement:
- If an executive collaborates with Gen-AI—inputting ideas, revising drafts, directing tone—it’s no less authentic than working with a human.
- If an executive blindly reads output without understanding or ownership, it can feel disingenuous—just as it would with human-written speeches.
The authenticity of communication has always depended more on intent and integrity than the tools used to produce it.
6. How This Impacts Leadership
Great leaders are not just great speakers—they’re great communicators.
The advent of Gen-AI challenges us to redefine what communication means in leadership:
- Is it the ability to write flawless prose?
- Or is it the ability to clarify vision and inspire action—regardless of the medium?
We don’t expect presidents to write their own speeches, nor do we judge CEOs who use editors for shareholder letters. Why, then, should Gen-AI be any different?
What we should care about is whether:
- The vision is clear.
- The values are consistent.
- The impact is real.
If Gen-AI helps a leader express those more effectively, that’s a feature, not a flaw.
7. The New Literacy: Prompting and Editing
Gen-AI hasn’t killed writing—it’s changed what it means to be literate.
The new key skills are:
1. Prompting
The ability to give an AI tool a clear, useful, and creative instruction. This is the equivalent of knowing how to brief a human assistant.
2. Editing
AI can give you a good first draft—but turning it into something truly meaningful requires a critical eye.
3. Personalization
Can you tweak the AI’s output so it reflects your tone, values, and priorities? That’s where ownership lies.
Being able to work with Gen-AI is quickly becoming a fundamental form of digital literacy, like typing or Googling was in earlier eras.
8. The Myth of Originality
Let’s bust a myth:
Much of what we call "original" has always been collaborative.
The books you love? Edited heavily.
The TED Talks you admire? Coached and rehearsed.
The articles that move you? Fact-checked and polished by teams.
Creativity has always been a group process. Gen-AI is not replacing creativity—it’s reshaping the workflow of creativity.
It lets us spend less time staring at a blank page and more time refining ideas, testing variations, and getting feedback faster.
In some ways, Gen-AI returns us to the true nature of creativity as an iterative, collaborative, and layered process.
9. Conclusion: It’s Not New—It’s a Shift in Power
So, is Gen-AI new?
Technologically, yes—large language models are a recent leap. But behaviorally and socially, what Gen-AI enables has been around for centuries.
What is new is this:
- Access: Everyone can now afford a speechwriter.
- Speed: Hours of drafting now take minutes.
- Confidence: People who used to struggle with words can now express themselves more powerfully.
- Equity: Communication is no longer gated by elite institutions or insider connections.
As Gen-AI becomes integrated into the professional and creative world, the question we should be asking is not, “Is this new?” but:
“Who gets to benefit from this now that it’s newly accessible?”
The answer, ideally, is: Everyone.
Final Thoughts
As you hear the next executive keynote, read the next polished blog, or see a student presentation that feels “too good,” remember: someone has always been helping craft those messages. The only difference today is who gets that help.
In a world where communication shapes opportunity, Gen-AI has cracked open the gates.
Now the real work begins: using that access to amplify truth, build bridges, and create value—not just noise.