ChatGPT Can Make YOU A Better Writer!

This AI-based service can do some research, it can write like a mofo — but there’s a better way for us to use it. As a comparative tool.

This lil robot that stole our hearts was cuter than a photo of the ChatGPT interface. So enjoy this cute WALL E pic instead. Photo by Lenin Estrada on Pexels

If you haven’t heard of ChatGPT yet, it’s a kickass AI-based system that you can ask questions too. We clever writers are starting to use it as a research tool, and non-writers are using it to generate well-written content. Both of those — irk me. And, there is a better way to use it.

1. Using ChatGPT as a Research Tool

ChatGPT does serve as a hand-diddly-andy research tool, as it scours the web for you and regurgitates content into new prose. The research seems decently thorough for initial research (although it doesn’t delve too deep into complex topics).

I see a foible, however, in using it for research. You don’t know where the research comes from. So far I haven’t seen any documentation that it properly evaluates sources. Can it tell the difference between the BBC and Buzzfeed? It might, but I haven’t seen it yet. So for now, do your own research; from reputable sources.

Pheww — at least it doesn’t seem sentient or self-aware, yet. Screenshot by Author of the ChatGPT tool.

2. Using ChatGPT to Write Content

This AI service, and the ones that will assuredly follow it, is freaking good at writing. The grammar and spelling it churns out are incredible. And it certainly is being — and will continue to be — used to write content. It’s eerily good at it. The tone is fairly authoritative, and the information is quite good. It does, however, lack a few things…

• It can’t create NEW content, like News stories, because it only pulls from existing web sources.
• It can’t put perspective into what it is writing about. Not yet anyways.
• It can’t create witty, engaging content. For now, it is only good at informative content.

I think this means that writers are safe for now, provided that you aren’t spinning/repurposing existing web content.

The Best Way to Use ChatGPT: to Become a BETTER Writer via Competitive Comparison

I read another Medium writer’s ChatGPT article and within the in-depth, informative, well-written article (I can’t for the life of me remember the author or find the article — but if it’s yours please leave a comment so I can link to it) it had this idea. To use it comparatively to become a better writer. And I had to share this concept because I think it is pure brilliance and it has been rolling around my brain bucket ever since I read it.

Here is what you do, when you write an article — ask a question to ChatGPT that encompasses your topic. Look at the answer and your article side-by-side. If it covers your article thoroughly, then your article is lacking. After all, we should be better writers than a herd of processors. It needs the human touch of content, examples, personal meaning, humor, analysis, etc.

Ok, so it can attempt to write humorous content. But I am sure that most of us can do better than a dad joke. Screenshot by Author of the ChatGPT tool

Ensure that your articles are better than what ChatGPT can come up with. Do it for the writing quality, and sense of human pride that machines can’t replace all of us… yet.