Spiral: Designing an AI Ghostwriter With Taste
AI & I
2025/10/22
Spiral: Designing an AI Ghostwriter With Taste
Spiral: Designing an AI Ghostwriter With Taste
AI & I
2025/10/22
In a world where AI accelerates content creation, the real challenge isn't speed—it's preserving depth and intentionality in writing. This episode explores how AI can be reimagined not as a shortcut, but as a thoughtful collaborator that enhances, rather than replaces, human insight.
Danny Aziz discusses the evolution of Spiral, an AI writing tool designed to foster better thinking through deliberate, reflective collaboration. Rather than prioritizing speed, Spiral slows down the writing process by using multi-agent systems and clarifying questions to align with user intent. The tool emerged from lessons learned after pivoting from an earlier version that lacked vision and engagement. Danny emphasizes maintaining craft when using AI—whether in writing or coding—by staying critically involved and avoiding passive reliance. He leverages DSPy to systematize prompt engineering, enabling AI to develop 'taste' through structured principles instead of verbose instructions. Spiral allows exploration across multiple drafts, offering diverse outputs while supporting intentional refinement. The discussion highlights the importance of ownership, continuous feedback via tools like Raindrop, and disciplined workflows that keep humans in control. Ultimately, the goal is AI that doesn’t just generate text, but helps users think more clearly and express themselves more effectively.
01:00
01:00
Danny Aziz built the entire Spiral app alone, showcasing exceptional craftsmanship in an AI-assisted era.
05:31
05:31
Spiral actively asks for more details, enabling users to go deeper from initial thoughts
08:29
08:29
AI should engage in mutual discovery, not just answer prompts
13:49
13:49
Writer generated three options with prompting in shared context window
20:32
20:32
Rules-based prompting didn't work; letting AI be flexible led to breakthroughs
30:38
30:38
Good writing stems from good thinking.
31:57
31:57
Good writing and articulation can have a powerful impact
37:48
37:48
DSPy performed better than Claude in handling a database migration task.
40:39
40:39
Be a craftsman with AI: always evaluate if the output feels right and fits your intent.
45:33
45:33
Using AI agents to self-judge writing quality creates a powerful feedback loop for product improvement.
50:58
50:58
The final optimized prompt achieved 76.5% accuracy through automated iteration.
1:02:24
1:02:24
Good writing is dynamic, and static AI models become less effective over time.
