Use A.I. as a writing assistant, not a writing replacement.

Use A.I. as a writing assistant, not a writing replacement

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize writing.

AI writing assistants, such as grammar checkers and predictive text algorithms, can help writers improve and save time. But, is AI really ready to be used as a replacement for human writers? Probably not.

One reason why AI shouldn’t be used as a replacement for human writers is that it lacks the nuance of human language. While AI can identify and correct grammatical errors, it can’t capture the subtleties of tone and style. At least, not yet.

My daughter is a big fan of manga, as a lot of our kids probably are. She brought up concerns about AI art and writing in the world of Manga. We both knew there was something wrong to the equation, but couldn’t really figure out what. Through discussion I think we found the problem.

It’s easy to spout the obvious concerns like:

  • AI may not be able to understand the intended audience or purpose
  • It can’t take into account cultural or historical references
  • A.I. can’t understand the implications of using certain words or phrases

Ultimately, the main issue with A.I. is the intent, specifically, the intent of the reader. When I read facts and just the facts, I don’t particularly care where the information comes from as long as it is accurate. For everything else, my intent is to learn from a human.

It comes down to the intent of the reader

Let’s take a story. In the case of my daughters Manga, half of her and other Japanese comics fans enjoyment is the creator, the thought they put in, their inspirations. The intent is to read a story created by a person.

Another example is a tutorial. Can an A.I. write a decent tutorial? Yes. But the good ones created by AI tend to be just the facts. When I am looking for a tutorial, much of the time I am looking for a person that understands the “human condition”… basically a person who made all the mistakes I might, and teaches me about them through mistakes.

When I want a movie, I want a persons vision. When I want an article, I want a persons character and personality either for added humor or gravity.

I’m sure we are at the point now where an A.I can trick us, but in many cases that is what it is, a trick. Its a trick because of our intention and our unspoken intention was to hear from a human perspective.

Will there come a point where humans prefer A.I. created content? Maybe, after we properly digest the concept, but for now, most of us have the intent that there is a human at the other end of the message.

But Don’t Discount A.I. Entirely

A.I. writing assistants can be useful tools for improving the efficiency and accuracy of writing. But, they should probably not be used as a replacement for human writers. The creativity and context-specific knowledge of human writers is essential for producing high-quality content that resonates with readers.

This article is a prime example. I used an A.I. to generate an article with the following prompt, “Write an article about how artificial intelligence should be used as a writing assistant and not a writing replacement.”

It spit me out a generic article. I then took the facts, double checked them, ripped out the bad and added in some flare. I basically used the A.I. to help me get started.

Below I will write out my process for using A.I. to write content:

  1. If I don’t’ already know the topic I’m writing about I might use an A.I. topic generator or keyword suggestion tool to get some ideas.
  2. Next, I come up with the intent for the article. This tends to be a simple question. “Should A.I. be used as an article replacement?”
  3. Next, I let the A.I. generate me an article. (In this case I used OpenAI’s chat function. It’s not uncommon that I will have the A.I. write the article more than once using different prompts. This helps me get different perspectives so I can chose which angle I am coming from for the article. Also, it give me the option of cobbling together a few articles to get the framework that I’m looking for.
  4. I put all the content in a writing assistant like HemingwayApp.com. Tools like this serve two functions. One, it allows me to clean up the article into clear and concise sentences that convey the message (A.I.s are unnecessarily wordy). Second, on an SEO level, it allows me to keep the reading level low, making sure it’s legible by a larger group of the audience.
  5. Next I put it through a plagiarism checker like https://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/
  6. Finally, I test it in a A.I. content detector like https://writer.com/ai-content-detector/ or https://contentatscale.ai/ai-content-detector/. The mere existence of AI content detectors should prove to you that A.I. content is different from naturally written content. But, not completly. My wife, who is currently going to school for her masters degree will write things and put it in these tools and guess what… they think she’s an AI. She wrote it all herself… She just wrote it with great grammer and spelling.
  7. Still finding that your content appears A.I. written? Either rewrite it to phrase things more naturally or use a tool like https://quillbot.com/ to rewrite suspect paragraphs. But really, if you did your job of rewriting everything in your own words, there shouldn’t be a problem… plus programs like Quillbot do a terrible job, so you’re gonna have to rewrite it anyway.

That’s it. At first you will find the process clunky, but it won’t be long until you find that an A.I. can help you make better content, faster.

But Wait! Dosen’t Google Penalize Your for A.I. Content?

Nope. They don’t. Here is there official answer:

And if you’d like to read more about what Google has to say about it, you can read up on it here.

Ultimatly, AI is just like everything else in marketing and SEO (and in life for that matter). Be honest and be ethical and you are probably doing just fine.