“Save hours writing clever, original content.”
Well who doesn’t want that? Although it sounds like an oxymoron, given the source: conversion.ai artificial intelligence (AI) generated writing. Can a computer produce clever, original content? And how does that threaten the future of writing, aka will humans still have a purpose in the world?
Existential crisis aside…
Moving the “life-purpose-will-a-machine-replace-me” existential threat aside, I had to try it. What writer hasn’t had writer’s block at some point? Or, you have a fabulous idea with the perfect three points to support it but can’t figure out a pithy way to lead in with an intro or summarize a conclusion at the end.
And all those repetitive things in business—follow-up emails, proposals…I had to admit I could see how automation could help—not replace me but make me more powerful.
Does AI-assisted writing work?
I had to try it. At $29 a month, conversion.ai won’t write your article for you (see, I’m still needed!) but it will generate outlines and intro and outro paragraphs. On the Blog Post Intro Paragraph function, I entered my title: “Would you try AI for Writing?” Then it asked for Audience. I entered “Entrepreneurs, Baby Boomers, Non-Digital Natives,” and finally, tone: “Casual, humorous.”
In a nanosecond came the result, 100% AI generated based on my simple inputs:
- You’re reading this sentence, aren’t you? Awesome! Now, how about if the next one was written by artificial intelligence (AI)? Would it still be as captivating? Maybe not. But hey, we’ve all heard AI is coming for our jobs–so maybe it’s time to get a head start and figure out how to collaborate with it. In this post, I’ll share my experience using AI for writing and what I learned from the experiment. Let me know in the comments below: would you try AI for writing?
Take out the “awesome” and “but hey” and it’s not too bad. The idea is that AI can jump start your creativity. In fact it gave me three different options for opening paragraphs, all within a nanosecond.
Friend or Foe? Embracing “career threatening” technologies
Another AI generated sentence from my experiment was: “Now more than ever before, we also live in a world where artificial intelligence can do some of our most tedious tasks for us—and that includes writing.”
Having just signed a book contract (yes, I did just drop that in here) I can see where for some industries having AI assisted copy would be helpful. Not for writing a book, I hope, where creativity is the star player. But for the publishing contract, why not use AI? So much of it is repetitive from client to client. Same for new business proposals, follow-up emails and such.
Having an AI assistant to fill in the “in-between” words around your main points sounds like a godsend.
And now for an AI generated wrap-up
If writing your first paragraph is the hardest part of an article, adding the conclusion or summing it up at the end may be the second. I went back in and tried the Blog Post Conclusion Paragraph function, entering the requested bits of info: What are the main points or outline of your blog post? “I hope AI won’t replace creative writing, but it can help make your life easier,” and my Call to Action: “What technology is changing your industry? Hit reply and let me know.”
That’s all I told it, and voila, three options that I slightly merged and edited for this AI generated result:
- I hope AI won’t replace creative writing, but it can help make your life easier. If you’re the type of person who’s always had to juggle a million things at once and has never been able to focus on anything for long periods of time, then tech can help. And if that scares you, don’t fret–AI isn’t going to be taking over anytime soon and there will always be a need for creatives like you. But that doesn’t mean the technology can’t help us all out in some ways. lending a hand with common tasks we put off when they become tedious or time consuming.
A year ago I dreaded the coming of AI for writing. After today’s experiment, I would try it again. What about you? What are some technologies changing your industry? Do you love them or hate them or are you somewhere in between?