Here’s the thing.
Can AI detect and fix typos and grammatical errors? Sure. That’s basically what spellcheck is. You aren’t hiring an editor because you need spellcheck, though (right?).
Editing academic writing isn’t solely about grammatical rules and punctuation. Language is flexible and powerful. These writers are manipulating language at its highest level, playing with not only meaning but the rhythm, beats, and layers of written prose. This is a highly skilled, highly attuned, highly creative craft. Even in academic writing. Especially in academic writing.
Editors are not here to “fix,” but to enhance. I am always looking for an author’s voice and personal style, and finding ways to bring that forward. An academic argument is communicated through a writer’s use of language. In fields like English or Comparative Literature, language is itself the focus of study, which makes how a point is communicated that much more crucial (multiply that tenfold in fields that dip into translation).
A skilled writer needs a skilled editor. A skilled editor can read between the layers of linguistic and scholarly nuance that go into top-tier academic writing, and understands that sometimes that “mistake” is there on purpose, or that sometimes it’s important to have a sentence constructed in an unusual way. Sometimes field-specific vocabulary can be manipulated in a way that goes against traditional grammatical rules.
So, no. Not only is editing an incredibly valuable tool for scholars looking to perfect their craft, but AI is, as of yet, not equipped to do the kind of job that truly top-tier writers need.
