Which Is Best? 
(3 min read)

As we continue our Human vs AI series at Read. Write. Engage, we'll take a look at how AI is doing in writing tasks. Last week, we considered AI as a proofreader where I'm still strongly on Team Human. 

In writing, AI is more useful.

AI in Writing
This is a task AI has been trained to do as one of its core functions. We can now ask AI to return information to us from a variety of "voices" or reference points and it does fairly well. We can provide prompts such as "You are an experienced marketer" or "Provide the information at a level of a 5th grader" and get reasonable suggestions.

Paul Roetzer of the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute and SmarterX has created a JobsGPT using ChatGPT as its basis. Paul is a marketer by trade. He notes on the home page of JobsGPT that in Content Creation, "LLM can generate drafts for blog posts, social media content, and email campaigns. It can also assist with editing and optimizing content for SEO and engagement," saving 30-50% of your time. JobsGPT was introduced in this blog post dated August 13, 2024 for how dated the 30-50% reference may be. 

AI in Research
​This is another task AI has been trained to do and it does fairly well. For the benefits of AI, writing and research are two of its highest skills. 

Research is key for many writing tasks, be it writing an article, blog post, a term paper, or simply providing information to others. Many times it's useful to find details, further information on a topic, or corroborate (or refute) whatever point a writer is trying to make. 

We now have two tasks useful for AI in writing. 

Can I Write A Book with AI?
I'd give that an emphatic no!

Many editors - and readers - can tell the difference. It may not be noted immediately, but heavy AI use will get caught at some point, even years later. Many proofreaders and editors find themselves on the front line of identifying AI generated or plagiarized material in books. An ethical concern develops about reporting it to authors or publishers or even editing books with a high percentage of seemingly AI generated material. 

Former Harvard President Claudine Gay faced fierce consequences with questions of plagiarism that she strongly denied. The use of AI makes it more difficult to clearly define your words vs someone else's. 
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It's fascinating to find that AI books are becoming more visible due to the volume of work produced daily, even attributed to legitimate authors who had nothing to do with the work! Amazon is trying to stem the tide (and confusion) by limiting self-published Kindle books to three per day. 

Do We Need Humans?
Can I get a hearty "Heck yeah!" on this! 

Whatever writing AI provides, it needs shaped. All AI developers admit and recommend this. AI has been trained with an enormous volume of information to synthesize quickly in a general way to provide a generally satisfactory response suitable for a broad audience. 

Whatever information AI provides, humans need to shape it further with prompts or put their own writing to work. AI provides broad, general information. 

AI continues to need fact checked. "Hallucinations" occur where the AI may provide examples or websites that aren't even real yet look very real. AI tends to be eager to please and does its best to provide what it thinks you're looking for, whether it's real or not. Always ask AI for its sources, but even those need confirmed.

AI cannot replicate your very special and individual voice and perspective on the world. AI is data and information,  an aggregate of many, not feelings or experiences. 

Team Human or Team AI?
I have to admit to a blend on this. Many humans using AI do find it useful to assist writing and research. 

Personally? I weigh more heavily on Team Human here.

• I'm fortunate to be decent at writing. I know not everyone is.
• I use it to assist research as an amped up search engine. 
• It's a useful idea generator to find connections I may not have made.

Transparency and AI
A discussion is always advisable to be clear the level of AI used to create a work and be sure all are agreeable. I see a Human© tag becoming likely in the future!

In the realm of writing, are you on Team Human or Team AI? Love to hear your thoughts!

I provide a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors. I look forward to discussing ways to Engage your customers - Let's Chat!

Which Is Best?
(3 min read)

Ah, a classic response - "it depends." 

It depends on the level of accuracy you want. Yes, humans do have failure rate—tools are your friend—but there are plenty of examples sharing "hallucinations" of AI or simply wrong source material or "where did it even get that from"!

We should be able to agree that AI needs humans to double-check its work. AI is very much in its infancy and is in a training phase. You wouldn't let your 4-year-old proofread your doctorate dissertation or business proposal, would you? 

What About Cost?
Ah—another "it depends" response.

Many seem to choke on the price to hire a trained proofreader. Absolutely understandable. If you're an author, there are many layers of editors to consider hiring, each with a different purpose, giving pause to consider how many is really necessary or useful. Can't you just pass it to Aunt Mary who used to be a teacher? I suppose so, but how long has she been retired or what subject did she teach? Is she really the best proofreader to help your project be amazing?

There are many less expensive options on Fivvr or Upwork. Many offering their services on these platforms are often new to proofreading or from another country where English is not the native language. It makes a difference in how your work is proofread. 

What About AI Options?
Many have heard of Grammarly as a great AI editing/proofreading resource. There are similar services available. Grammarly readily notes it uses AI to "improve" writing suggestions. Be sure to see if your AI proofreading tool follows a style guide if it's critical for your work.

If you need to follow a particular style guide for your work, Grammarly admits it uses a rather general frame of grammar reference. If you need to follow CMOS (Chicago Manual of Style), AP (Associated Press Stylebook), AMA (American Medical Association), or other style guides, Grammarly will not be useful.

Team Human or Team AI?
Many proofreaders and editors feel bound by a standard of ethics to call out writers using a high level of AI to create their work. I'll admit, I advise caution in this. Many now blend their own words with assistance from AI. It's a subjective scale to decide level of human vs AI and determine what's predominantly AI.

Plagiarism checkers have historically been challenged on their level of accuracy. This is an interesting article from the University of Kansas urging caution in plagiarism checkers. We're all cautioned on the need to fact check AI results. I've found many instances of AI "hallucination" or just plain making things up. Many folks even fight suggestions offered in Office's Word with good reason! 

AI is useful as an idea generator and to help refine your thoughts, but as a proofreader? Sure, I'm biased, but I'm on Team Human all the way for proofreading. 

Transparency and AI
The best bet is to be up front with your clients how much of your proofreading work is human vs AI assisted. There are a number of tools available to proofreaders to maximize their eyes catching errors. I wouldn't consider all of them "AI," such as the use of "macros" or PerfectIt. Could an author use these tools themselves and not a proofreader? Sure thing! I suggest it depends on the cost of the tool and your time, how prolific you may be in your writing, vs hiring a trained proofreader who may use these tools to assist their human read-through. Hiring a proofreader should carry the expectation of 1-2 human readings of your work and not fully rely on tools.

I predict a day will come soon where work will be stamped as Human© as there is already a demand by some to note AI use.

In the realm of proofreading, are you on Team Human or Team AI? Love to hear your thoughts!

I provide a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors. I look forward to discussing ways to Engage your customers - Let's Chat!