Why I love AI

Why I love AI

Artificial intelligence is everywhere, it is a content creator’s dream – or is it?

Not sure about your LinkedIn feed but not a day goes by when I am not bombarded with either articles, posts and/or musings on the power of AI or copious vanilla content created by it. And I suppose that is why I love AI, the content is vanilla, so my own content stands out.

Now I am not saying I don’t use AI, when you are dyslexic and not a natural writer like me, AI is amazing for proofreading, correcting spelling and sentence structure, both of which I am weak at! That said putting my content through AI regularly I have noticed some keys to identifying content written by AI, compared to organic content by a human being.

Boy AI loves subheadings and dashes! Any text I put through AI it loves to bullet point and segment into easy digestible bit sized portions. While I understand appealing to the lowest common denominator and realise that we are in the TikTok generation, when everything must be instantly digestible within just 2mins, when it comes to my audience primarily folks working in higher education, most have read the odd book or two and can cope with a page or more of continuous prose.

One thing I do like about AI is it does like to summarise – so its great if you want to condense content to share in a post and or have a defined word count. That said it often takes out the good bits!

Back to why I love AI, when I say good bits, I mean AI makes content vanilla. It does not have an opinion, it always plays both sides so for example if I type in “Was Hitler a good leader” it comes back with “The question of whether Adolf Hitler was a "good leader" depends on how one defines "good leadership." It goes on to provide four bullet points (of course) in favour and four against, the closing paragraph as follows –

“While Hitler displayed certain technical leadership skills—such as the ability to inspire loyalty and achieve short-term goals—his catastrophic moral failures and the long-term consequences of his actions disqualify him from being considered a "good leader" in any ethical or holistic sense. Leadership is not just about achieving objectives but also about the nature of those objectives and the methods used to achieve them. Hitler's legacy is one of destruction, suffering, and inhumanity. While he wielded significant influence and demonstrated certain organizational abilities, the devastating consequences of his actions overshadow any leadership skills he might have possessed.”

At least for a change AI didn’t “sit on the fence,” but suffice it to say in AI’s attempt to be balanced it does not obviously have an opinion, as is not a human and so tends to dilute anything it gets hold of. At least with Hitler, the case is pretty cut and dried but reading its points for and against, you could reasonably assume the author felt he was a pretty good leader in the first portion of the argument, which obviously is not the case.

So, this brings me to my key point, for those content creators that are authentic and have an opinion, while others may not like what they have to say, at least they are putting forward something which is original and true to themselves.

While we would in no way condone any opinions that promote hate speech or victimise individuals or groups, authentic content can reveal home truths to the benefit of all. I often get accused of saying things others are afraid to, and that’s the point!

For those of us lucky enough to have freedom of speech, a luxury many are deprived of, why would you use AI to water down and/or mask your opinions? I am a firm believer in that while AI may define the future of work, it will be those that use it to voice strong opinions and disrupt the status quo that are the most successful.

Anyone can type a question into AI and come up with an answer, something my 14-year-old is already doing when it comes to schoolwork, my question to her as it would be to anyone else using AI is, do you want your work to be vanilla or stand out?

AI will only get you so far, intelligence and knowledge will define success as it does now and has always done, AI is not a short cut far from it, if used correctly. When it comes to the future of work it will be those that utilise and wrestle with AI that rise to the top, not those that take it at face value and use it blindly.

So, when it comes to AI what do I think are the best ways to use it?

• Always get your thoughts down first, don’t rely on AI to innovate, it can’t, AI can only come up with stuff that is already out there, that someone else has thought of, written down and shared online.
• Think about style, I can now spot AI content a mile off, as can all my daughter’s teachers, so can your readers. If you are serious about content creation you need your own style, and AI can’t do that for you.
• AI is not a big fan of quotes, and it does not retain links, or the platform I use doesn’t, so I always go back through comparing my original to the AI version and put quotes back if it has taken them out and include links to my sources.
• Use AI to merge content you have already written or condense content you wish to use in posts and the short form.

Finally edit, edit and edit again – I can not emphasise the importance of editing enough, write your piece put it through AI to proofread, if you are me that is important! Then read it and read it carefully, because even by proofreading it can change meaning and emphasis. Editing is going to be one of the most valuable skills when it comes to using AI successfully so pay attention in English class!

AI is amazingly a valuable tool, but it is only as good as the content already out there and even then it can get things wrong. As I have said many times to educators of all levels, we cannot put the genie back in the lamp, AI is here to stay, not unlike the calculator and PC that came before it. In the same way students can now use a calculator in their exams, education must embrace AI and work with students to find the best ways of using it. The same goes for content creators, have some fun, try out some stuff, but remember true creators are also creative! It is that creativity and originality that will define compelling content not that which anyone can just “ask AI!”