Technical writers, script writers, and even novelists might seek a new endeavor after reading an article like "AI and the End of the Human Writer" by Samanth Subramanian, which appeared in The New Republic already a year ago (April 22, 2024). The most common questions I get as a corporate writing consultant these days revolve around artificial intelligence. Do you use AI? (Yes.) Can AI help me write better? (Yes.) How accurate is AI? (Very.) How reliable is AI? (Very.) Should I let my school-aged children use AI? (Yes.) Should AI be banned from the classroom? (No.) Will AI replace my job? (Maybe.)
My article, "Using AI to Improve Writing Creativity, Productivity, and Quality" for ACS Chemical Health & Safety, describes many ways that AI can help on-the-job writers. Programs like Google's Bard, Microsoft's Copilot, and OpenAI's ChatGPT can help you plan, draft, rewrite, or translate a document:
- Planning – Tell AI to "list features to include in a house description," and it will give you more details than you might have thought of under the categories exterior, interior, outdoor space, amenities, accessibility, and location. If this content is not enough, simply ask it, "Anything else?" and it will immediately list finer details, such as alarm system, safety locks, flooring, interior decor, smart home features, high-speed internet, laundry room, basement, attic, and community benefits. Ask it again, "Any other ideas," and it won't give up, providing other information, none of it redundant.
- Drafting – Give it a list of ideas for, say, a country description, such as the square miles, geography, population, political system, religion, customs, cuisine, and folklore of Malta. In seconds, it will generate a 1,000-word essay including footnotes. If the depth of content in that draft won't do, ask it for an expanded version, and you'll get one, again in seconds.
- Rewriting – Drop in a document riddled with grammatical, diction, spelling, and punctuation miscues with the simple prompt, "Correct this," and AI will render a virtually error-free message. While AI does not yet organize ideas as effectively as it corrects mistakes, it is a reliable editing partner for basic documents.
- Translating – AI translating services may not have the high-minded attention to style as have human translators of fine literature, but it does a sufficient job with basic business writing. At the prompt of "Translate this into Spanish" (or many other major languages), your English text will be accessible globally.
