Abstract: With the recent introduction of the ChatGPT language model for text generation, the future of human writing is undefined. To better understand what the general public thinks about AI agents substituting human writing, we conducted a representative survey of the US population (N = 1,005) in January 2023 that looked into the public’s perceptions of automation of various types of writing. Our results reveal that the public is most accepting of AI writing newspaper articles and business reports, and least accepting of automated school essays. Moreover, the findings suggest that more vulnerable populations such as ethnic minorities, people of low income and education are most comfortable with automated writing, especially AI-generated news articles. We elaborate on possible causes of our findings and suggest directions for future research.