Hot take: Don't let AI take notes for you

Excellent insight! The best way for me to retain anything has always been to write it out (preferably by hand). I can look back at my own notes from years ago and understand the structure, abbreviations, leaps of logic, ... , because it's always still *me* who wrote them. I could never learn well from borrowed notes, and AI summaries only magnify that problem. With a (trustworthy) classmate, I could at least rely on them understanding the material. With AI, I have no such guarantees. (Now, disclaimer: I am someone who loves writing, both the act of turning words into sentences into stories and the physical act of putting pen to paper, so the whole 'writing things for you' aspect of AI is utterly wasted on me.)

Thank you Simon and Kaarina for writing on this. I've always loved writing tons of notes not just during meetings, also writing down observations of things that happen through the day, and things I want to learn more about, as well as lots of funny little doodles!! I use it as a way of processing things. Writing by hand helps me to learn things and cement them in my head, it's also a helpful way of thinking through problems, and asking myself questions. The note taking habit that has lasted the longest for me is my testing journals where I've recorded notes from attending different webinars, blogs and books over the years. I can definitely see potential benefits of using AI to transcribe lengthy meetings, I'll still be writing my own notes!

Thanks, Heleen. Learning well from own notes vs not learning well from borrowed notes. I like your framing.