On this week's discussion thread we want to focus on AI writing assistants.
Whether for ideation, edition, or polishing, if you use any AI powered tools to improve your writing workflow, let us know which ones and how well they work for you.
I’ve not used AI tools for the writing itself for many reasons which I can expand on if needed. But to stay on topic, here’s how I do use GPT-4:
1. Quick technical reference: eg “What are the minimum requirements for an object to be iterable”, and then follow-up questions. Often I’m confirming my own knowledge as a check. Other times, if it’s something I don’t know, I’ll then go and verify elsewhere.
2. Help with technical review. Eg. Paste some code I plan to use for my article and ask for comments, improvements, drawbacks, and so on. Of course, I’ll then use my own judgement on what changes to make
3. Ideas, especially with any narrative elements in my writing. I’d explain what I’m writing about and what I’m trying to achieve and then ask for 30 or so storylines I could use. I’ll then pick the few I like and ask it generate more based on my preference. I rarely use its ideas directly but I build on them with my own thoughts.
4. Check writing style and grammar (I also use Grammarly)
5. Occasionally, ideas for the code itself. For example, in my last article, I wasn’t happy with the example I had of a static method (this was the final article in a series on Python OOP). So I posted my class definitions and asked for several suggestions for static methods that fit those classes. It did poorly on most, but one or two were ok and that’s all I needed.
I think the better of a writer you are, the lesser the need for tool usage. This isn't to say there is no value whatsoever in AI writing assistants for seasoned writers, but they probably add most value in the ideation process (selecting and fleshing out the topics and ideas you're looking to cover) rather than during the writing, edition, polishing itself.
Interesting! I would have thought the exact opposite. Just like intellisense is so much more useful when you're a seasoned coder because you understand the implications of what the tool is suggesting...
Believe it or not, LLMs have zero role in my brainstorming process. I jot down ideas as they arise "in the wild", and seldom ever do on-the-spot ideation with GPT or any other models.
One thing that's helpful is to ask an LLM to summarize what you just wrote. If it doesn't give you back the conclusion you're after, you're doing it wrong. I think that's the best use case for them as a writer-- proofreading. You can also ask for a grade, but keep in mind that the criteria matters a lot, and you can get an A with a crap piece, or an F with something you want to send out.
Stephen already mentioned summarizing and fast research, and I also use GPT for these things. I need to already know about the subject I'm writing about, but I can always fill in knowledge gaps with that sort of research as well.
I've slowly been using more tools to help with my writing process.
- Using ChatGPT to help with research and ideas. Its often quicker to ask for a summary from ChatGPT on something specific than to search on Google and read through several websites.
- Using ChatGPT to fix spelling errors
- I also use Hemingway (https://hemingwayapp.com/) a lot to help simplify my writing. I try for a 6th or 7th grade reading level on my posts. It's not specifically AI, but a really useful tool to run your writing through.
Heard of Hemingway App before but never tried it? Do you feel it gives something extra that you couldn't achieve with a somewhat careful ChatGPT prompt?
I'm really finding Grammarly GO much better specifically for rephrasing sentences or even short paragraphs. For longer things, e.g., outline generation, ChatGPT is still my go-to tool.
We use Grammarly every day. It is just a simple way to edit posts for those that don't yet have the income to hire an editor. It also has more advanced features, which are great as well.
We have used it some. We still mostly use the basic one. Maybe we should try Grammarly Go some more. It is still in Beta, but we have the feature turned on.
I use Grammarly to check all first drafts, as I try to avoid dealing with spelling and grammar to maintain creative focus. I have noticed the AI options, but I am reluctant to use them. I don’t want my writing to lose my personal voice. As such, I often veto edits Grammarly suggests when I disagree and prefer the tone of my original text. Grammarly is a great crutch, but I don’t want to let it become a wheelchair.
On the other hand, a good friend of mine who is a programmer keeps ChatGPT open via voice interface while he codes. He has conversations with it while he works. He laughs, as he has noticed he has become more polite to it over time, to the point of apologizing to it for asking mundane questions. He finds it quite useful, but he has also had to correct it a number of times on factual errors in replies.
Here's a quick (2.5 min) video overview I put together because I get asked whether AI wrote the book I just published about.... AI. The simple answer is that AI is useful. The longer answer is that if you aren't a good writer, AI won't make you a better one, especially if you aren't skilled enough to catch the errors.
I have rather tall tech stack for AI writing ... but a lot of it is for experimenting ... first hand research into how AI integrates into the writing process.
ContextMinds - AI-Driven Knowledge graph tool that organizes microcontent and provides new ideas through research and AI.
Lazy.so - My note-taking and capturing app that I also use to summarize content I'm reading and write short, mundane things across all my apps (think here emails, comments, etc.)
ChatGPT - I often give ChatGPT content I've already written and ask it to repurpose that content fore a new context. CoT prompting with Code Generator makes it possible to analyze and summarize long text ... and write long form content like lessons, chapters, etc.
Claude - Chat bot that often works better than ChatGPT for stylized text, more human text.
Copyspace.ai - Where I write my content like any other word process, but allows me to build tools that adapt, rewrite, and generate new ideas. Lex just came of their waiting list, so I might start using that more, because it is accessible to students.
Gamma - Fantastic presentation too with AI.
Text Expander - Snippet tool where I keep my prompt blocks (so I don't have to rewritethem)
Typing Mind - Interesting interface laid over chatbots that allows for prompt libraries and building bots. So basically, I build a poetry bot and come back to it every time I'm working on a prompt.
I’ve not used AI tools for the writing itself for many reasons which I can expand on if needed. But to stay on topic, here’s how I do use GPT-4:
1. Quick technical reference: eg “What are the minimum requirements for an object to be iterable”, and then follow-up questions. Often I’m confirming my own knowledge as a check. Other times, if it’s something I don’t know, I’ll then go and verify elsewhere.
2. Help with technical review. Eg. Paste some code I plan to use for my article and ask for comments, improvements, drawbacks, and so on. Of course, I’ll then use my own judgement on what changes to make
3. Ideas, especially with any narrative elements in my writing. I’d explain what I’m writing about and what I’m trying to achieve and then ask for 30 or so storylines I could use. I’ll then pick the few I like and ask it generate more based on my preference. I rarely use its ideas directly but I build on them with my own thoughts.
4. Check writing style and grammar (I also use Grammarly)
5. Occasionally, ideas for the code itself. For example, in my last article, I wasn’t happy with the example I had of a static method (this was the final article in a series on Python OOP). So I posted my class definitions and asked for several suggestions for static methods that fit those classes. It did poorly on most, but one or two were ok and that’s all I needed.
All of these are great examples of sensible use cases ;)
I think the better of a writer you are, the lesser the need for tool usage. This isn't to say there is no value whatsoever in AI writing assistants for seasoned writers, but they probably add most value in the ideation process (selecting and fleshing out the topics and ideas you're looking to cover) rather than during the writing, edition, polishing itself.
Interesting! I would have thought the exact opposite. Just like intellisense is so much more useful when you're a seasoned coder because you understand the implications of what the tool is suggesting...
Maybe it’s just me, but I feel you can’t compare coding and writing with each other.
Believe it or not, LLMs have zero role in my brainstorming process. I jot down ideas as they arise "in the wild", and seldom ever do on-the-spot ideation with GPT or any other models.
One thing that's helpful is to ask an LLM to summarize what you just wrote. If it doesn't give you back the conclusion you're after, you're doing it wrong. I think that's the best use case for them as a writer-- proofreading. You can also ask for a grade, but keep in mind that the criteria matters a lot, and you can get an A with a crap piece, or an F with something you want to send out.
Stephen already mentioned summarizing and fast research, and I also use GPT for these things. I need to already know about the subject I'm writing about, but I can always fill in knowledge gaps with that sort of research as well.
Proofreading is a very good use case too!
I've slowly been using more tools to help with my writing process.
- Using ChatGPT to help with research and ideas. Its often quicker to ask for a summary from ChatGPT on something specific than to search on Google and read through several websites.
- Using ChatGPT to fix spelling errors
- I also use Hemingway (https://hemingwayapp.com/) a lot to help simplify my writing. I try for a 6th or 7th grade reading level on my posts. It's not specifically AI, but a really useful tool to run your writing through.
Heard of Hemingway App before but never tried it? Do you feel it gives something extra that you couldn't achieve with a somewhat careful ChatGPT prompt?
I’ve tried to use ChatGPT for grammar and have yet to be happy with the results. It honestly makes some topics harder to understand.
It could be my prompts are not quite right, but Hemingway is just so easy and user friendly.
I'm really finding Grammarly GO much better specifically for rephrasing sentences or even short paragraphs. For longer things, e.g., outline generation, ChatGPT is still my go-to tool.
We use Grammarly every day. It is just a simple way to edit posts for those that don't yet have the income to hire an editor. It also has more advanced features, which are great as well.
Have you tried the generative features (Grammarly GO is called). I find it significantly more controllable than raw ChatGPT.
We have used it some. We still mostly use the basic one. Maybe we should try Grammarly Go some more. It is still in Beta, but we have the feature turned on.
I use Grammarly to check all first drafts, as I try to avoid dealing with spelling and grammar to maintain creative focus. I have noticed the AI options, but I am reluctant to use them. I don’t want my writing to lose my personal voice. As such, I often veto edits Grammarly suggests when I disagree and prefer the tone of my original text. Grammarly is a great crutch, but I don’t want to let it become a wheelchair.
On the other hand, a good friend of mine who is a programmer keeps ChatGPT open via voice interface while he codes. He has conversations with it while he works. He laughs, as he has noticed he has become more polite to it over time, to the point of apologizing to it for asking mundane questions. He finds it quite useful, but he has also had to correct it a number of times on factual errors in replies.
Here's a quick (2.5 min) video overview I put together because I get asked whether AI wrote the book I just published about.... AI. The simple answer is that AI is useful. The longer answer is that if you aren't a good writer, AI won't make you a better one, especially if you aren't skilled enough to catch the errors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psHFoic0fn0&t=10s&ab_channel=PolymathicDisciplines
I have rather tall tech stack for AI writing ... but a lot of it is for experimenting ... first hand research into how AI integrates into the writing process.
ContextMinds - AI-Driven Knowledge graph tool that organizes microcontent and provides new ideas through research and AI.
Lazy.so - My note-taking and capturing app that I also use to summarize content I'm reading and write short, mundane things across all my apps (think here emails, comments, etc.)
ChatGPT - I often give ChatGPT content I've already written and ask it to repurpose that content fore a new context. CoT prompting with Code Generator makes it possible to analyze and summarize long text ... and write long form content like lessons, chapters, etc.
Claude - Chat bot that often works better than ChatGPT for stylized text, more human text.
Copyspace.ai - Where I write my content like any other word process, but allows me to build tools that adapt, rewrite, and generate new ideas. Lex just came of their waiting list, so I might start using that more, because it is accessible to students.
Gamma - Fantastic presentation too with AI.
Text Expander - Snippet tool where I keep my prompt blocks (so I don't have to rewritethem)
Typing Mind - Interesting interface laid over chatbots that allows for prompt libraries and building bots. So basically, I build a poetry bot and come back to it every time I'm working on a prompt.
I think those are the big ones!
That's a big list, I only know like 2 or 3 from there, gotta try the rest ;)