@mao_shii assistants and editors are really important for writers, since we work so close to the craft, we'd not notice any flaws in it. So fresh eyes and people trained to pick apart stories are necessary for it, if you're really interested in publishing writing as a career... writers still do everything in a story, what editors do is basically red lines places that need work and cut out extra stuff that doesn't really count....? So yeah, it's not really about preference here. editors are what make stories really shine. But they are expensive, so I can't afford one yet or have anything I want published traditionally yet, so I guess I'm not one to talk.
As for AI, I'd say be very careful about using it. Controversies shouldn't be a worry for you if you're not generating the whole story with AI, but AI use can dull your creativity. It might make you doubt your style if you take its help often. I would advise against asking AI for ideas. Good ideas don't always come instantly; you've gotta read other books, do various things until one really strikes you, you know? One of the biggest pieces of writing advice I've gotten was to not force yourself to write when you have that idea block, because it can lead to bad ideas.
I myself take ChatGPT and Gemini's help for grammar, research, and ask whether my scenes achieve what I wanted to achieve or not—I treat it like a fresh batch of eyes, I guess.
But other than these small helps, using AI, I think, is really, really dangerous for creative work like writing.
