Ha! So I’m not the only professional writer who would never use AI to write their serious work, but welcomes AI to suggest appropriate marketing slop:
“Speaking of cringe, the third way that I attempt to use AI is for social media assistance. I willingly admit that one of my least favorite parts of being a writer is social media promotion. After my last column, about AI’s speech rights, which I knew LLMs had quickly gobbled up, I asked ChatGPT to “write a LinkedIn post for Anika Collier Navaroli about the latest Ask Anika CJR column.” The post it generated was so yikes (another “slang” word for “cringe,” according to ChatGPT) that I closed the tab without using any of the text the LLM generated. I decided that I’d rather mortify myself in front of my professional network with my own words.”
My wife teaches high school English. Her students will not read and barely write. They see no reason not to use AI for everything. Even a year ago she could spot an AI-written essay, but the increasing sophistication of these tools makes it harder. The administrative demand that "all students must pass" makes holding them accountable even more difficult. She asks her students how they expect to get by in the world with no real skills and they just look at her blankly. They all expect to be tik-tok artists and influencers. Who knows, maybe that's all that will be left.
Ack, that's a horrifying view of the future! I feel for your wife. Well before I believed that AI would ever get this far, however, I saw the problems with our educational system. Grading has always been an imperfect way of inspiring students, and now your wife's experience shows that it's being turned into a disincentive. The optimist in me wants to hope that we will finally do away with grading and that we will be forced to fix our educational system. If every child felt inspired to go to school instead of compelled, we'd all be better off. And this is coming from a straight-A student—I hated school, I hated grading. Even though I excelled in the system, the system only compelled me when it should have inspired me. Unfortunately, teachers work within a system, so except for those teachers (like me) who found freedom by working outside of the system, the changes are going to have to be made in the system itself. And the system is built to resist change.
I love Claude's response. Some things to think about there. I had not used AI until very recently. I'm working with a publisher who has an AI available for writing test questions. I've found the AI didn't produce great stuff most of the time. (I was able to take some questions and responses fully.) Often, what the AI produced based on my prompt acted as inspiration for me. Deadlines were tight and I didn't have an hour to come up with a question. I'd ask the AI and then edit or riff. It's been an interesting experience, and I have mixed feelings about it. First, I'm certain I'm training my replacement. (Though people will always be necessary to verify the AI, there will be fewer of us needed.) Second, the AI trained me. I needed it less as the project progressed because I developed a better understanding of what I had to do. The AI became the model for me. I rarely take assessment focused assignments as they aren't my specialty, so I improved a skill. And working with AI may become a necessary skill too. It's hard to say how the field will go for sure.
I disagree with people who say that we will always need a human to check AI. They're only basing that on what AI looks like now. With millions of us (somewhat unwillingly) training AI systems to do better, they will do better. Will it be as good as a world in which human imperfection is woven into all we do? No. Will it be a more efficient world? Certainly! Will maximum efficiency make us happy? No way. I think as AI takes over, we will appreciate human imperfection more and more. Or... I hope!
I think it will depend a lot on what the field is. I'm in educational publishing. The target audience is children. I think there will always be a someone at the top overseeing the AI in this field. But one foreman, so to speak, could oversee a hundred AI producers. The factory floor will be all AI in many fields. Perhaps I am also just running on hope here. Humans have a great capacity for undermining ourselves.
Ha! So I’m not the only professional writer who would never use AI to write their serious work, but welcomes AI to suggest appropriate marketing slop:
“Speaking of cringe, the third way that I attempt to use AI is for social media assistance. I willingly admit that one of my least favorite parts of being a writer is social media promotion. After my last column, about AI’s speech rights, which I knew LLMs had quickly gobbled up, I asked ChatGPT to “write a LinkedIn post for Anika Collier Navaroli about the latest Ask Anika CJR column.” The post it generated was so yikes (another “slang” word for “cringe,” according to ChatGPT) that I closed the tab without using any of the text the LLM generated. I decided that I’d rather mortify myself in front of my professional network with my own words.”
Anika Collier Navaroli in the CJR https://www.cjr.org/ask-anika/how-transparent-should-i-be-about-ai-clearing-confusion-how-why-disclose-use-fact-check-spellcheck-thesaurus-transcription.php?mc_cid=7fb014a3a6
Fabulous article!
Thanks!
My wife teaches high school English. Her students will not read and barely write. They see no reason not to use AI for everything. Even a year ago she could spot an AI-written essay, but the increasing sophistication of these tools makes it harder. The administrative demand that "all students must pass" makes holding them accountable even more difficult. She asks her students how they expect to get by in the world with no real skills and they just look at her blankly. They all expect to be tik-tok artists and influencers. Who knows, maybe that's all that will be left.
Ack, that's a horrifying view of the future! I feel for your wife. Well before I believed that AI would ever get this far, however, I saw the problems with our educational system. Grading has always been an imperfect way of inspiring students, and now your wife's experience shows that it's being turned into a disincentive. The optimist in me wants to hope that we will finally do away with grading and that we will be forced to fix our educational system. If every child felt inspired to go to school instead of compelled, we'd all be better off. And this is coming from a straight-A student—I hated school, I hated grading. Even though I excelled in the system, the system only compelled me when it should have inspired me. Unfortunately, teachers work within a system, so except for those teachers (like me) who found freedom by working outside of the system, the changes are going to have to be made in the system itself. And the system is built to resist change.
I love Claude's response. Some things to think about there. I had not used AI until very recently. I'm working with a publisher who has an AI available for writing test questions. I've found the AI didn't produce great stuff most of the time. (I was able to take some questions and responses fully.) Often, what the AI produced based on my prompt acted as inspiration for me. Deadlines were tight and I didn't have an hour to come up with a question. I'd ask the AI and then edit or riff. It's been an interesting experience, and I have mixed feelings about it. First, I'm certain I'm training my replacement. (Though people will always be necessary to verify the AI, there will be fewer of us needed.) Second, the AI trained me. I needed it less as the project progressed because I developed a better understanding of what I had to do. The AI became the model for me. I rarely take assessment focused assignments as they aren't my specialty, so I improved a skill. And working with AI may become a necessary skill too. It's hard to say how the field will go for sure.
I disagree with people who say that we will always need a human to check AI. They're only basing that on what AI looks like now. With millions of us (somewhat unwillingly) training AI systems to do better, they will do better. Will it be as good as a world in which human imperfection is woven into all we do? No. Will it be a more efficient world? Certainly! Will maximum efficiency make us happy? No way. I think as AI takes over, we will appreciate human imperfection more and more. Or... I hope!
I think it will depend a lot on what the field is. I'm in educational publishing. The target audience is children. I think there will always be a someone at the top overseeing the AI in this field. But one foreman, so to speak, could oversee a hundred AI producers. The factory floor will be all AI in many fields. Perhaps I am also just running on hope here. Humans have a great capacity for undermining ourselves.