There has been a lot of discussion in the media and plenty of articles online about artificial intelligence (AI) writing tools over the last couple of months, sparked in large part by OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022.
OpenAI is a non-profit company that researches AI based in San Francisco, California. Their latest offering, ChatGPT, is an AI tool that interacts with the user in a conversational way, meaning users can ask questions and make requests in regular, everyday English (and other languages) instead of requiring the use of special commands.
One of the main reasons that ChatGPT is causing such a commotion is that it performs remarkably well. Following a user’s typed requests, this AI-driven chatbot (a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users) can generate a multitude of written works, including reports, stories, scripts, lists, short-form blurbs, and articles.
It was reported at the end of January that ChatGPt had passed law school exams in four courses at the University of Minnesota and an exam from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. The chatbot performed at a C+ grade level on average at the U of M and between a B or B+ level at the Wharton School of Business.
ChatGPT isn’t the only impressive AI writing tool out there, but it is free to use and, therefore, more accessible for people to “take it for a spin” and test its capabilities.
Along with the recent heightened attention on AI writing tools since ChatGPT’s unveiling, serious questions have arisen about the effects these tools may have on the writing industry. Can chatbots perform as well as human writers? Will chatbots eventually replace human writers, essentially pushing them out of the field?
To answer these questions, The Grizzly Gazette reached out to Elna Cain, a content writer based in Ontario that has been in the business since 2014. Elna has worked with numerous businesses as a freelance digital marketing writer. She is also a prolific blogger with multiple websites and a course creator with a focus on mentoring others on successful ways to enter the field of freelance writing.
Elna views AI chatbots as helpful writing tools but does not see them as being able to replace human writers. While the written results produced by chatbots can be impressive, they cannot replicate the same quality of writing as a skilled human. That being said, these tools can be beneficial to writers as aids to the writing process, acting as more of an assistant than a stand-in. “We shouldn’t be afraid of it,” Elna explains, “it’s like a first draft type of tool.”
For example, a chatbot can generate an outline for a written piece based on the subject matter. The writer can then look through the generated subtopics to pick and choose what they would like to include in their work and add anything that might be missing. Sometimes the ideas generated by the chatbot will spark new ideas in the writer. Using a chatbot in this way can streamline the process and save time for the writer.
Elna has experience using ChatGPT and Jasper AI (a subscription-based AI writing tool), with Jasper being her preference due to the various available templates and features. She started using Jasper in 2021 and did not like it initially, finding the writing “fluffy” or long-winded.
Jasper (and ChatGPT) essentially “learns” from user inputs, and over time the content it produced improved. After trying Jasper again roughly six months later, Cain was pleasantly surprised by the improvement in the chatbot’s output, along with some new features.
Most often, Elna uses chatbots to help with social media posts and product descriptions. Using product descriptions as an example, she explains that Jasper is relatively good at writing product descriptions for e-commerce purposes, explaining the features and benefits of the merchandise. Then she will edit the resulting paragraph and weave in her own flow of writing and personality. “But it’s only for that type of writing that I will use the actual words from an AI tool,” said Cain.
As Elna describes the current writing landscape, clients are aware of the issue of AI tools and are trying to figure out their responses to it. Some businesses are very clear that they absolutely do not want AI tools used in writing content for them, but others don’t mind and are comfortable with the knowledge AI is being used as a tool and not as an automatic content generator. With this in mind, Elna points out that writers need to be upfront about the tools that they use.
There are also potential drawbacks to using AI writing tools; they can and do make mistakes. Any information presented by a chatbot can not be taken at face value and should be fact-checked.
The writing industry is rapidly changing as AI writing tools continue to advance and become more widely adopted. While the future is uncertain, it appears as though human writers can breathe a sigh of relief for the time being.
