Is artificial intelligence… bad?
I have been hearing lots of talk lately about the new artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT. Many editors and copywriters are really worried that this bot, or whatever technology evolves from it in the next few years, will take a substantial chunk of their work – and their income. For those of us who work as freelancers, this is a pretty big threat. On the surface, it seems that ChatGPT can generate readable web copy, write informative blogs (not this one, I promise!), and even produce entire essays. There are lots of examples around of people feeding it certain prompts and sharing the outcome – demonstrating both how scarily accurate it can be, and how hilariously wrong. The bot has been caught fabricating references, wrongly ascribing actions to people and generally making things up, but this is not going to stop people from using it. Now more than ever, it will be the consumer’s job to vet the information: the blog reader needs to check facts, the marker needs to confirm references. All of this undoubtedly leads to disruption in a number of industries. And I would say a lot of those industries could do with a shake-up. I don’t believe the AI in and of itself is “bad” and, as it evolves, I hope that editors such as myself learn to incorporate it into our toolkit of useful items. Because that’s what it is, really. It’s a tool. We can use it for positive or nefarious purposes, but it isn’t going to replace humans in doing the work of communicating.
Now, this isn’t something I’ve researched deeply or spent a lot of time analysing. This is my opinion, based on life experience, work experience, and little moments like the one I’m about to share with you. If you have a different opinion on ChatGPT or other forms of AI, I’d love to hear it – I’m always keen to learn more. But here’s the anecdote that inspired this blog:
A dear friend of mine was applying for a job recently. She sent me her resume to look over and applied the suggestions I offered. On the evening the application was due, we had a conversation about cover letters. She had assumed they were a formality and she could throw one together quite quickly, but I pointed out that the cover letter is what gives your new employer their first impression of you. It’s worth spending some time to introduce yourself properly, and it absolutely needs to be tailored for each job. She had heard about ChatGPT and thought it might give her a quick way to produce a personalised cover letter; I had some doubts, but was interested to see what it would come up with.
My friend put the relevant details into the chatbot and it very quickly produced a cover letter. A pretty darn decent cover letter. If someone I didn’t know had sent it to me for review, I wouldn’t have changed a whole lot, other than suggesting a slightly less formal register. The trouble was, I did know who had written it. And I could see that this cover letter had entirely erased her personality. The job required a people person, and my friend is certainly that. But the cover letter carried none of her warmth, enthusiasm or kindness – it merely stated the facts. I pointed this out, and she somewhat reluctantly returned to the computer to write a cover letter in her own words. It was immeasurably better. The nuance of word choice, the lateral combinations of knowledge and experience, the genuine enthusiasm about the role… these are all things that a chatbot simply cannot emulate.
Not yet, at least.
So I for one am not too worried about the disruption that ChatGPT and other bots like it are bringing to my industry. I know that, as a human, I have knowledge and a perspective to offer my clients that goes beyond massive data banks and advanced technology. By all means, use these tools to help with your writing – and then get your friendly neighbourhood editor to check that your voice hasn’t been lost in the process.
