Issue 121 – March 2023
DON’T FREAK OUT ABOUT CHATGPT (BUT DON’T REST ON YOUR LAURELS, EITHER)
“It’s not going to replace the storytelling you do, the anecdotes you might provide, or the in-depth research you’ll conduct.” – Gini Dietrich
Hear that buzz? It’s people talking about Artificial Intelligence, and more specifically, the OpenAI “chatbot” known as ChatGPT.
Writers are wondering if a chatbot can do what we do.
In early tests, not very well. AI-generated text reads like your (I’ll admit it, my) old boring, overly long high school essays. It’s not original and can’t come up with creative answers to new problems. It has limited knowledge of the world and events after 2021. It’s often wrong and has no sense of humour or personality. And as OpenAI admits, it “may occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content.” Well, then!
In some ways, it’s a bit like Wikipedia. What you get probably isn’t impartial or entirely accurate, which is why you can’t rely on it for research. But it is helpful as a place to start, and it certainly is fast.
AI is already putting a robotic toe in the writing market, and here’s what people are saying ChatGPT is useful for:
- Breaking writer’s block or brainstorming
- Creating an outline for a first draft
- Pasting in something you’ve written and asking AI to add more or better examples, make it shorter, make it livelier
- First drafts of structured pieces, like job descriptions
- Basic cover letters
- Specific, limited tasks, like captions in videos
- Routine tasks where humour and personality don’t matter
- Multiple headline options for blog posts or articles
- Turning articles and blog post into social media posts, complete with the right wordcount and suggested hashtags
- Finding statistics earlier than 2021 and other tedious parts of research (doublecheck them, though)
- Short, factual pieces (also doublecheck these).
Where real writers, not tools like AI, will shine
“Creating thoughtful, meaty content that differentiates you from your competitors. Give your audience something they won't get anywhere else.” – Brad Marley
“Look for opportunities to mine your life and your career for the stories, lessons and anecdotes that will help set your content apart from that avalanche of absolutely passable content that AI has already started raining down upon us.” – Warren Weeks
“Write from your personal experience; share your opinion; and write as if you know the other person. All these seem to be beyond AI’s abilities.” – Michael Katz
“Tools like ChatGPT excel at repurposing existing content. If you create new content, you’re expanding into territory that AI hasn’t yet trampled on.” – Josh Bernoff
Be known for something, and constantly improve “to the point where machines struggle to match your personal style.” – Christopher S. Penn
“It’s not going to replace the storytelling you do, the anecdotes you might provide, or the in-depth research you’ll conduct.” – Gini Dietrich
How to make ChatGPT work for you
“The key is dialog,” says Ethan Mollick. “You have a slightly misinformed but infinitely helpful intern – what do you want to ask it?”
- Be as specific as possible in your prompt to help AI understand what you’re looking for (note: jobs are now popping up for query writers!)
- Use the “regeneration” prompt to tweak the first results; for instance, ask ChatGPT to try again and be more concise, use a more professional or casual tone, use examples or the style of a specific publication
- Review and tweak the results; make them more compelling, more personal, more human
- Fact check
- Ask “What’s missing?”
Remember that AI is a tool. As Ann Handley says. “AI is the guest we invite into our work, not the one throwing the party.”
If you haven’t tried it yet, give it a whirl. Go to OpenAI > Try ChatGPT. Register for a free account. Start small by asking what you should make for dinner. Have fun! And let me know how it works out for you.
(None of this was written by our ChatGPT friend.)
Related reading:
A sobering look at the legalities of using ChatGPT
An amusing (alarming) look at what AI might offer you, including a 92-word sentence full of jargon
Recently in the Red Jacket Diaries:
It takes more than a social media post to drive change
Tips for better inclusion in links you might have missed, January edition
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