AI Isn’t Taking Over Your Writing Job (Probably)
As a writer, I get asked a lot about AI. Usually, it is along the lines of “When will you be laid off or have to get a real job?” Okay, it isn’t that negative, and people are just curious and concerned, but it feels that way sometimes.
Initially, I wasn’t worried about it when Gen AI exploded in 2023, and everyone used it for everything but being more productive. After all, AI has been around for decades. (Remember the buzz when IBM’s Watson won Jeopardy and beat grandmasters in chess?). But it was so prevalent in the media, and so much money was being pumped into it in tech that I took the plunge and started playing around with it.
I used it for creating documentation, writing fiction, creating images, manipulating images, creating templates, writing Excel macros… I spent more time on it than I’d care to admit.
I discovered that AI had value, just not in the way the media and investors looking for a place to get quick gains suggested.
Gen AI excels at tackling repetitive tasks and overcoming the initial hurdle of starting. I believe someone once said, “Every good piece of writing starts from a terrible first draft.” Let me use AI right now to look up who said that.
(typing)
Perplexity AI says it was Anne Lamott.
Gen AI is great at overcoming this hurdle and providing an initial draft. This isn’t nothing. You give me a draft, and I'll edit it and be happy to complete it. I expect many others feel this way, too.
However, after creating the starting point, Gen AI falls short. AI does not think. It does not innovate. It just scrapes what has already been produced and tweaks according to prompts and perceived wants (which causes hallucinations and strange images that were not historically accurate).
AI can create, but it is not creative.
AI is not a conscious being (even though you can talk to an AI therapist, an AI doctor, and even an AI Jesus); it doesn’t know when to focus on a task or make something up, hence the hallucinations.
Ironically, the people I think should be more fearful of AI are working hardest to profit from it in the next three to five years, as seemingly every company throws any available cash at any possible AI integration project brought up in a roadmap review or C-Suite meeting.
But there will be fallout.
Developers write code, designers create mockups of websites, product managers create business cases and user stories, and marketing people create collateral to support the launch. VPs create decks, CFOs crunch numbers and predict consumer trends, and CROs identify the best markets. This is predictable and scalable work that Gen AI is great at learning and will soon do better than humans.
How long before AI assistants watch as you work?
You must have value beyond the repeatable and mundane to survive Gen AI. I’m not sure much of that is happening in business these days. I see a lot of “follow the leader” mentality and FOMO driving decisions. Of course, that is a generalization. Any position or job title can provide value (I wrote a blog article explaining the blueprint on how to become more intelligent). But time will tell.
I advise embracing AI, learning AI, and incorporating it into your world, whatever your job is. Learn it. Become its friend. Use it for tasks you hate and enjoy. If it works and does the job better and more quickly than you can, accept defeat and move on, as I promise you that someone else in the company is already wondering as they eye your salary on the spreadsheet.
But in situations where Gen AI does it worse than you, gloat for a moment, as you’re human, but then stop and understand why. Is it temporary, and will Gen AI learn soon enough, or is it due to your creativity and ability to see patterns and solutions that a computer cannot? If the latter, communicate that to your manager and promote your value because they need to have an answer ready when their boss asks if they need you anymore.
Gen AI will be the most disruptive technology to society since the Internet. It will change everything, whether you like it or not, whether you expect it or not. If you let it play out, you might find your badge doesn’t work when you try to return.