The development of the ChatGPT app has led to scores of articles about the possibility of the app replacing writers entirely. But writing is a tough business, one in which it is hard to make a living and even harder to build a respected brand. Part of that is because writing something publishable is such a small part of what is actually involved in being a person who gets to call him or herself a writer. While grammatically, a writer is one who writes, colloquially by “writer,” we mean one who writes their own personal expressions for pay reliably. We mean something more like a public intellectual.

Over the years, the intellectual or policy wonk is one of the classic models of the successful nonfiction writer. This creature from a bygone era was best exemplified by the New York Intellectuals of the Cold War period. This well-respected and productive group of wide-ranging writers included heavy-hitting thinkers like Irving Kristol, Irving Howe, and even some people not named “Irving.” But even if “Irving ChatGPT” started a regular column, he’s in for a tough life as a public intellectual nowadays.