I really like this and will be breaking out the crayons myself. One case that's genuinely flustered me recently: my 9-5 involves curriculum writing for English-language learners, and I've found AI to be extremely good at stripping out the idioms and passive voice that naturally slip into instructional content, despite the writer's best efforts. Most curriculum content fits more naturally on the "mechanical" side of the chart, but the best curriculum is also ideas-driven!
Yes, difficult! My own personal line is that AI never touches my text, but I'm pretty happy (and would put this in part of the proofreading step on that chart) having it point out tics, repetition, cliche etc.
But that example may be a bit akin to some academic papers (think of someone reporting the results of a randomised control trial)--where there are plenty of ideas there, but the form of thinking is a bit less bound up with writing, and the writing itself is more mechanical...
One consideration I'd add - which is one reason why I, like you, have a firm red line on ever letting AI write for me - is what use of it may do to our own thinking processes and/or skills. So for anyone who largely makes a living by thinking and writing, that's another reason not to use it for that purpose.
Agreed— beyond the piece-level considerations there is the skills atrophy etc… sort of harder to put your finger on and I’m always wary of a hard work for hard work’s sake mentality (I generally love offloading mental weight to machines), but there is definitely also something there.
The correct answer to when should AI write for you is never. If something is unimportant enough that AI can write it, it shouldn’t take a person more than a few seconds to create it. If it is important enough that a human needs to write something, it’s too important to let an AI edit it.
Even well polished AI writing has tell tale signs that make it shitty to read. Any time (and tokens) spent doing AI writing would be better spent becoming a better writer.
We Luddites must pick our battles! I'm personally quite happy letting AI write the emails I sometimes send airlines trying to squeeze out a few extra miles after a long flight delay, for instance.
I’m not making a moral argument, purely a practical one. AI writing is shit and will work against whatever point you’re trying to make. Just write the goddamn email yourself. It takes 30 seconds, is free and will be better constructed.
I really like this and will be breaking out the crayons myself. One case that's genuinely flustered me recently: my 9-5 involves curriculum writing for English-language learners, and I've found AI to be extremely good at stripping out the idioms and passive voice that naturally slip into instructional content, despite the writer's best efforts. Most curriculum content fits more naturally on the "mechanical" side of the chart, but the best curriculum is also ideas-driven!
Yes, difficult! My own personal line is that AI never touches my text, but I'm pretty happy (and would put this in part of the proofreading step on that chart) having it point out tics, repetition, cliche etc.
But that example may be a bit akin to some academic papers (think of someone reporting the results of a randomised control trial)--where there are plenty of ideas there, but the form of thinking is a bit less bound up with writing, and the writing itself is more mechanical...
This is very similar to where I am.
One consideration I'd add - which is one reason why I, like you, have a firm red line on ever letting AI write for me - is what use of it may do to our own thinking processes and/or skills. So for anyone who largely makes a living by thinking and writing, that's another reason not to use it for that purpose.
Agreed— beyond the piece-level considerations there is the skills atrophy etc… sort of harder to put your finger on and I’m always wary of a hard work for hard work’s sake mentality (I generally love offloading mental weight to machines), but there is definitely also something there.
The correct answer to when should AI write for you is never. If something is unimportant enough that AI can write it, it shouldn’t take a person more than a few seconds to create it. If it is important enough that a human needs to write something, it’s too important to let an AI edit it.
Even well polished AI writing has tell tale signs that make it shitty to read. Any time (and tokens) spent doing AI writing would be better spent becoming a better writer.
We Luddites must pick our battles! I'm personally quite happy letting AI write the emails I sometimes send airlines trying to squeeze out a few extra miles after a long flight delay, for instance.
I’m not making a moral argument, purely a practical one. AI writing is shit and will work against whatever point you’re trying to make. Just write the goddamn email yourself. It takes 30 seconds, is free and will be better constructed.