How not to use AI for writing?’
This was the prompt I gave my favourite AI chatbot, Gemini, the first thing while writing this article. And with one click, Gemini was there, providing me with all the reasons not to use it for writing. This led me to the root of it all – if AI cannot grasp the essence of a question, why are we choosing it to settle on an answer? Why did we start using AI to write in the first place?
Last year, controversies sparked as five finalists of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize were admitted to using AI for their reporting process. This was a new conversation happening on the global platform, and it led people to think about what the future of writing, reporting, journalism, novels and content would look like. Writing has always been an acumen of prestige and distinctiveness of individuals. When ChatGPT revolutionised the world overnight, writing was the first thing that changed its course of action. ChatGPT could understand consumer bases and target audiences, too, with a single prompt, a work that marketers and content writers spent hours mastering. And the internet flooded over articles on how to use AI for such works. Fast forward to today, ChatGPT is stagnating with an 11% downturn in its web traffic. AI is no longer in the early adopters’ court; it is a saturated market in foresight. The last ten months have taught us to write with AI; it did not prepare us for how to write without it. And that dependence can cost you time, money and excellence. So, as a saving grace, here’s how not to use AI the next time you sit with a blank document in front-
Does AI sound like you?
One of the wow factors of prompt engineering is adding the phrase ‘make the answers look like they are from an engineer’, a kind of personified prompt. While ChatGPT and other AIs are programmed to mimic the response of an engineer, they cannot grasp the nuances or depth an actual engineer can capture. The gap makes a huge difference in writing, often leading to misinformation.
Do you consider AI a research tool?
AI is a great tool but could be better used in research. At the beginning of the AI revolution, there were concerns about losing markets for search engines. This is a considerable prediction as AI could give one-liner factual answers that search engines couldn’t. However, as time passed, such easy answers’ limitations emerged. Everything AI delivered was not factual. AI is programmed to be trained with publicly available data, which varies across platforms and can be tempered with controversial opinions and misinformation. So, AI needs more verification checks than humans can do with proper research on topics. If you unquestioningly trust AI, this might be your queue to move on.
Do you think AI will replace marketers?
One of the significant sectors in which AI has promised its potential is the area of social media and content marketing. And rightfully so, AI did replace a lot of repetitive work in the industry; it helped enhance the quality and the level of human error. However, it needs to catch up to understand the growing market and the wide variety of target audiences across demography, geography, and age groups. Marketers deal with consumers and their nitty gritty. For people whose growth lies in expanding their businesses and understanding the consumer bases, the power of topic research and structuring the write-up to grab audiences’ attention based on real-life experience is irreplaceable.
Do you think AI is the master of it all?
AI can do loads of things, you name it. But what it cannot do is to cater to your needs the exact way you want it to. Writing any content becomes a significant consideration. You will be utterly disappointed if you leave AI to mimic your efforts. AI can help you to a great extent to improve your outcome, but only when you know how to use it. AIs like Grammarly Quillbot enhance the quality of a write-up by making suggestions and setting your tone. These are great tools to consider when emailing your professor, contacting your clients, or simply writing to exercise your skills.
Do you feel AI should be tailored only to you?
Writing can only be done by taking vocabulary and grammar into account. As accurate as it can be, AI is an enemy to both. AI tends to create very formulaic and repetitive write-ups that do not pass the bars of a quality write-up. If the verbose article AI has produced against your prompt is the perfect fit, you should revert and edit your article.
Using AI might come off as a hack to life. And for many instances, it is. But are you giving up the sophistication of writing to exercise the cheat code of AI? That’s the decision you have to make as a writer!
Author – Subeh Tarek
