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How to Use AI Tools, Especially if You’re a Writer
NOTE: This is not about using AI to write.
The first time I watched a demo of a bot voice [successfully!] interacting with a human client who wanted to make a restaurant reservation, I thought, If 75% of our thoughts are the same every day, is that so surprising?
And still, I was shocked at how well it worked. Not shown, the gazillion fails.
That was a few years ago, and since then, AI tools have only gotten better. But they’re still jenky. Will they replace me? Maybe? But if AI can help the planet through addressing climate change, drug development, disease diagnosis, and surgical advances — all actual, current applications — I can retrain.
In the meantime, I’m not so worried. Years ago, when I worked with Carnegie Mellon University’s esteemed professor and crime statistician Alfred Blumstein, as much as he loved his crime-predicting algorithms he had no problem admitting they would always be flawed. Why? Because there’s no accounting for human behavior. And so it’s my belief that the human ability to make decisions that confound AI bodes well for writers — our stories will go on.
