Climate change warning: Greenland once melted and raised the ocean 5 feet.

A Relic. Several years from now, I wonder if these two words might describe the very paragraph you are reading right now, a collection of sentences drafted painstakingly by a human author. It underwent multiple iterations—editorial notes included—before the final version confronting you. I struggled through word and sentence permutations until they felt acceptable, capturing the muscle and musicality I’ve come to believe characterizes my “voice.” This next paragraph, on the other hand, was generated by ChatGPT: fluent, orderly, and almost indecently quick. It arrived with polish...