When students turn to artificial intelligence for writing help, the concern for many is simple: The tool may do too much.
As schools weigh handwritten assignments and AI policies, some educators are looking for ways to teach responsible use of AI rather than avoid the technology altogether.
Write the World, a Cambridge-based nonprofit founded in 2012 as a writing community for teenagers, is testing a different approach. The nonprofit, which has reached more than 140,000 teens and educators from more than 125 countries, has developed its own AI companion, Clara, designed not to write for students but to ask questions as they draft.
Launched last July, Clara prompts students to explain their ideas, consider their audiences and think through choices such as structure, evidence, tone and word choice. When Clara is asked to write the next sentence of a draft, it refuses, then asks the writer to identify the main reason behind the argument and consider a specific example that could support it.
“I can’t write the next sentence,” Clara responded during a demonstration. “But [I] can totally help you decide what you should do.”
David Weinstein, founder and CEO of Write the World, said the organization began thinking more seriously about AI about two years ago, after seeing writing on its platform “infiltrated by artificial intelligence.”
“The idea of authentic writing was at the core of what we’re doing,” Weinstein said. “It concerned us, and honestly we thought long and hard about what to do with this.”
The organization first tried to understand how students were using AI, asking them to disclose whether they used it for brainstorming, grammar checks or other purposes. Weinstein said Write the World later worked with Benjamin Klieger, a student at Stanford Online High School who was developing an AI companion that uses Socratic-style questions to guide teenage writers.
Brittany Collins, Write the World’s director of education, said she was “initially an AI skeptic” but became convinced by Clara’s ability to push students toward reflection, or what she called “the sort of cognitive routines” the organization already tried to build through its curriculum.
“It’s not generating text,” Collins said. “I think that’s the biggest differentiator that we see.”
For Sofia Gontcharenko, 17, a student at Newtonbrook Secondary School in Toronto, the tool was most useful to her when she was trying to brainstorm.
“[Clara] kind of introduces it as a helper, as opposed to a writer,” Gontcharenko said. “It helps you think in a different way…[and] it introduces a different perspective.”
Ipsi Karnam, 17, a student at Fuquay-Varina High School in North Carolina, said Clara has been useful for developing her writing skills.
“It had a benefit for my nonfiction pieces and my essays,” Karnam said, adding that it could give writers “a clear layout” and suggest where to “start here” or “add a hook.”
But with poetry and creative writing, she said, too much AI feedback could begin to change the piece little by little until it no longer felt like her own.
“It had sort of a Ship of Theseus effect with my poetry and my creative writing,” Karnam said. “I wouldn’t even recognize the piece as my own voice.”
Karnam’s concern points to one challenge Write the World is still trying to navigate as it develops Clara: how to make the tool useful without letting it push too far into the writer’s voice.
Collins said the organization is working to improve Clara, including making the tool more accessible beyond text-based conversations and adding more skills-based instruction for classroom use.
“Enabling somebody to actually speak to Clara and have that added modality, I think, would be a great step towards furthering accessibility,” Collins said. “The other is allowing for more skills-based instruction through Clara, specifically in K-12 contexts.”
Collins said Clara is not meant to replace teachers but to support students before a teacher can respond.
“Clara is not assessing,” Collins said. “We’re thinking of Clara as sort of the side-by-side tutor that’s available 24-7 in the way that a teacher cannot be.”
Write the World has also developed a classroom version of Clara, including a Google Docs version being piloted at Bryant University. Collins said about 200 first-year students used the tool this spring, with plans to expand to as many as 2,000 students next fall. Teachers can see broad categories of student questions, while individual student questions remain private.
“Teachers know far more about their students and their curriculum than Clara or any AI ever could,” Collins said. “They’ll be in a position to give feedback that’s more targeted and potentially impactful.”
For Karnam, Clara’s value depends on keeping that boundary clear. It can help young writers ask better questions about their work, but it cannot replace the judgment, emotion and intent behind the writing itself.
“Writing is an art, and AI cannot produce human art, because art is emotion,” Karnam said. “If writers are going to use AI, I do think Clara is the best one to do.”
This story is part of a partnership between Cambridge Day and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
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