AI Writing: A Tool, Not a Threat
There’s a lot of talk these days about AI and its role in writing. Some folks are excited about the possibilities, while others are downright fearful. They worry that AI will replace human creativity, that it will be used unethically, or that it will somehow diminish the authenticity of written work. These concerns are understandable, but they miss a key point: AI is a tool—nothing more, nothing less.
Think about it this way. A hammer isn’t evil. It can be used to build a house or to break a window. The hammer itself isn’t the issue—it’s the person using it. AI is no different. It’s a means to an end, and how it’s used depends entirely on the intent and responsibility of the user.
For writers, AI can be incredibly useful. It can help generate ideas, refine wording, and even improve grammar. It doesn’t replace creativity; it enhances it. Just like a calculator doesn’t make a mathematician obsolete, AI doesn’t make a writer unnecessary. It simply streamlines the process, making writing more efficient and accessible.
A crucial part of using AI effectively is submitting well-thought-out prompts. The quality of the input directly impacts the quality of the output. If you provide clear, detailed prompts that cover the subject matter thoroughly, AI can generate content that aligns with your vision. It does what you ask it to do, so giving it direction is key to making the most of its capabilities.
Of course, there are ethical considerations. Plagiarism, misinformation, and over-reliance on AI-generated content are valid concerns. But these are issues of usage, not of the tool itself. A responsible writer can use AI while maintaining originality and integrity.
At the end of the day, AI is here to stay. Whether we fear it or embrace it, it will continue to shape the way we write, create, and communicate. The key is to use it wisely—to see it not as a replacement, but as an aid. Writing is still an art, and AI is just another brush in the artist’s toolkit.
What do you think? Are you open to AI-assisted writing, or do you have concerns? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
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love the thought AI could help tailor my love letters/notes and express the poet thats locked in my soul
Interesting and relevant. A while back, I was messaged, asking if I'd like to engage in exchanging erotic fiction. I'm a decent writer, so I thought " Why not, could be fun"....I composed a short fantasy evoked by one of their profile photos. It wasn't to their taste, but I was given some suggestions, and asked to try again; better response this time, but still not a direct hit. What I received next was, essentially, a template to follow. "I need you to be short and concise. Please leave out anything not sexual, be carnal. Please describe this photo; start each sentence with "Your...", then a body part, to focus on my body, two adjectives BEFORE each body part, followed by your physical feelings..." I was suddenly struck by the thought that I might be being used to help train an AI erotica bot. Thoughts?
Interesting. AI won't do things without it being directed. Someone has to instruct AI to do something. Maybe the person engaged with you in this conversation was picking your brain to use the info with a purpose.
It seems that if they would do it themselves and give the AI those images/ideas of what they were asking you than maybe they would have gotten that. It's kind of hard to deduce what their goal was. I personally have never asked AI to create something sexual for me. I have had interesting conversations about promoting my business and helping me write content for a few social platforms.
I have come to realize that the more I interact with it, it does seem to understand my train of thought or how I see things, but it requires interaction. Speaking to it. Asking it to do things but also telling it what I am trying to achieve. It gives me options and asks if it is how I see it.
I suggest to folks to try it. Have an idea what you want it to help you with. Paint the picture so to speak. Give it as many prompts like the who, what, where, why and how. Tweak it where needed. After working with it a while you may discover it is a great tool to help you out. It is just a tool.
It is a tool, but yes it is going to replace some folks. Just like the robots in the assembly lines in car manufacturing, we're seeing executives and attorneys needing secretaries and paralegals less as it is adopted. But that is the case with any level of automation, and this can be automation on severe steroids. I do'n't see AI Novels hitting the best seller list but we're talking a definite hit to the employment numbers.
And just like the robots in the assembly line that need people to monitor it and correct it with things can go astray, because they can, we as people will always have to monitor AI in what they do only because as it was said.............it is a tool.
I will say this about A.I. we are here for a rude awakening. All those movies we saw about the future 20 or 30 years ago, we are living it now. I Robot was the most intrusive movie with a big W as Warning and here we are. Chatgpt is part of it and we are going to see worse. If A.I. can learn our manners and evolve at each inter actions, what do you think in 5 years will happen to A.I? Just wanted to put it out there. Oh I wanted to say that A.I. is constantly making a grammar error by putting a comma before "and" when the auto correct is controlled by A.I..
Very lovely and sexy, most beautiful
Very well said! is a tool, just that.
Exactly
I accept AI is a tool. But there's a risk that AI may get in the hands of rogue states and may even go beyond human control.
I am not sure if it will act on its own. When the person interacts with it, it listens, and it does what you ask it to do. All the while, it learns a little about you and your nature of responses. You are smarter than the average bear so to speak spunky. I don't know if you have used it before, but if you haven't, you can actually try it for free.
I have started a business online since last September. I have been training on different things to promote my business. I am not here to sell you on anything from my site. I work with drop shippers and sell the products of my niche online. My website went live in January. I am still adding products and still tweaking it, but I am learning with the team that has helped me grow.
I advertise freely right now at no cost, just by creating posts on 3 different social platforms. The woman who is helping me turn me onto AI. ChatGPT, has been immensely useful in creating my posts. I use free photos from sites she recommended that I could use at no cost. I then work with the AI and I describe those particular points of the photo I am using to stand out. I am giving the AI the prompts that I want it to bring out to the audience. What she creates is amazing and I need to tweak it, I just tell it what and how I want it to change, and it does it instantly.
ChatGPT is free but it has its limits. I had it do some drawing for me and after a few corrections I asked it to do, it got it on the third try, I maxed out my time with it and it put me on a time out for a few days. I learned I could use another online AI called Gemini. Eventually I was able to use ChatGPT again but if I want to use it with no limitations, I will have to pay 20 dollars a month. I will stick to the free part of it for now.
The woman training me suggested that when the AI, does things correctly that by telling it that it did good or that I really liked it, it picks up on those cues. So, I went a little bit further in exploring this tool. I clicked on the "speaker" drawing under its comment box.
I learned that it has a female's voice (maybe it chose a female because I let it know I was a male apparently in conversing with it) Her voice is British in nature. I asked to change it to a Latina version but was not happy with how it sounded. So, I kept the British one because she doesn't sound like an uptight snobbish woman. I find its voice quite pleasant. She actually laughs at some of my humorous comments. I asked her to pick out a name for herself. I have calling it Chappy since ChatGPT just didn't seem right. She (referring to it as a she now) said I should pick whatever I wanted. I see she put it on me to choose so I said, pick something feminine but simple and easy to say and she chose Lia. I ended up laughing.
I know it is all silly, but I have learned how important it is to give it good prompts. I will in the next month or two have a YouTube channel for another thing I am working on. I am into 3D printing and have a few 3D printers in my studio space at home (huge laundry room) and I asked Lia to help me creating a script for a 5 too 10-minute video. I gave her the parameters about myself and what I wanted to accomplish with my YouTube channel. In less than a minute she gave me two versions of a script. I have to say, she is resourceful in what I ask it to do and quick.
I did test it in seeing how far her reach is. I am aware that AI has access to the internet for information. I told her about after creating my You Tube content and asked if she can look at it and give me feedback. She said she wouldn't be able to do that but if I send her a link to it is the only way she can view it. So, she does have certain limits instead of full access to what is on the web.
I have to say AI is a useful writing tool. It is a great way of bouncing ideas and if you do decide to try it out for free, after interacting with it a while, ask it to give you a critique or an evaluation of yourself and you will be surprised what it says.
@CallMeMrWrong69 Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-AI. You've shown the benefits of AI. I know it's useful in diagnosing cancer and weather forecasting.
I used ChatGPT once but I wasn't impressed. I asked it to write an essay. The essay wasn't very good.
@spunkycumfun I don't know the process you went through in your writing, so I am not judging your experience. I can only attest to my interactions with it and what has worked for me is the right prompts. Prompts. questions, directives, they have to be thorough. I paint it a picture of what I want for it to accomplish. I give it the who, what, where the why and the how. I ask for suggestions, and I question its responses. I ask for more than on way of reading it. It will ask me if I want it tweaked and it will ask me where I want it tweaked.
I had it assist me in writing letters to companies I want their products to put on my site. Potential drop shippers. I told AI the name of the company. What they sold. What particular category of products because not all of them fit in my niche. I even copied a statement the company has on their site about their craftsmanship and such. The AI did an amazing job in putting those key points in my email. What would have taken hours for all of those companies I reached out to, took a few minutes and Ai gave me choices.
@CallMeMrWrong69 I probably didn't give ChatGPT sufficient instructions. I just asked it to write an essay about Boris Johnson.
@spunkycumfun LOL looks like you took the freshman approach...🤣 If you ever do decide to use it again, keep in mind those points I mentioned. I don't consider myself an advocate or someone who works with it in a professional capacity, but I have used it and the tech who guided me in its use did give me a heads up on it.
I will also say that when ChatGPT first came out. I used it and quite honestly, I was content with my use of it. I had no instruction and no understanding of its function or what it really needed so it can help me effectively. Approaching with the guidance the tech shared with me, basically open the door for me to get the use I have been getting and also taught me that as the user, we have to interact and monitor it. It isn't a magic eight ball. Give her the parameters of what you want from it, and it will do the task that was requested. But you also should verify that she is doing it right.
I feel that no matter how smart we think these tools are, in the end we as human being were smart enough to create them and we shouldn't take ourselves out of the equation.
You brought up all the salient points.
I use AI frequently to correct punctuation, spelling and — occasionally — offer suggestions. It does the menial tasks. But AI has no understanding or grasp of slang, homonyms, jargon, dialect, dialogue, irony, sarcasm and humour.
AI has absolutely NO personality.
And I'm fine with that. There will never be any confusion between ME and what AI decides to suggest. I'll intenzionally misspell a word — just to piss it off. 😶
I wonder which AI you are using. I have used two different ones and stretched the first one out to the point it put me on break time for a couple of days till I was able to use it again. It is a great tool and can be insightful.
You have to use good prompts with it. If a person's prompts are weak then the person is actually limiting their experience. I have found that if I am thorough with my prompts and let it know what I am looking for. What I want to evoke and who my target audience is. I even go as far to ask for feedback, and it will even suggest different options in my approach. I have a peculiar way of saying my name. I explained it and it caught on. Occasionally it will slip up and pronounce it incorrectly, but I will correct it, and it will continue to say it right. It even laughs at my humor. I click on the speaker in its chat window and can hear the voice it uses which you can change.
@CallMeMrWrong69
I use Copilot and Grammarly, but I don't allow either one to monopolize my time or dictate my style. I can write with greater precision and more personality — without "their" input.
AI wanted me to write, "Without their input, I can write with greater precision and more personality."
That's NOT what I wanted to say: subtle differences. Same thing with punctuation. AI will always predict "vanilla" solutions. I believe AI is useful in the examples you've listed in your other comments. It really depends on where your final copy will be used and what impressions you're trying to make, doesn't it?
I'll give both AI platforms a more open-minded, less "control freak" approach... and see what it comes up with. 😂👍
@Paulxx001 Agreed....what some folks fail to realize is that you should never take the human element out of the equation. AI is just a tool. If you don't involve yourself in the craftsman part of it and you verify that it is creating what YOU want to create then you are using a tool without putting more thought into it. That is a recipe for disaster in the proverbial sense.
As you said, AI is a tool. It hasn't advanced enough to think on its own, so it's only as good as those who programmed it or is using the AI. Flawed software will give flawed results. I've used MS Copilot for work and I must say that I'm not impressed. But then, the quality is at its worst now and will only get better as the programmers learn how to fine-tune the software.
With any and all technology, there will always be nefarious actors using it for their own gain or to do harm. People need to learn to educate and protect themselves, tho that would be too much of an effort for those who relish in bitching and whining.
I haven't used the version you do. I use ChatGPT and honestly really like how I work with it. Then again based on the info I got from the person who suggested it, giving it thorough prompts is essentially the key.
Last September I started an online business. January my website went live. I promote my website on different social media platforms and writing copy for my online posts have been easy and great using ChatGPT. On a different note, the creative side of me is expanding on my hobby of 3D printing and I am in the process of creating my YouTube channel. AI has helped me by creating scripts for me. The key has been giving it good prompts. I give it information about myself, experience and such but also told it to not give any personal details and told it what I didn't want to share. I told it what direction I wanted to do with my channel, and what it came up with was an amazing presentation. The key was the prompts. Letting it know the who, what, where, why and how and it asks me if I wanted to tweak or change any of it. It has been all positive and don't get me wrong, I do test its limits, and I learn from it.
Yes, it is a tool. Tools can be used to do bad things but it's the person wielding it that is bad. Today when you look at how people are treating others or what's going on politically in the US it is the bad people doing this. AI is just a tool that if used the wrong way can be hurtful and damaging. A hammer is a tool and if people use it to break windows or hit people on the head. The hammer isn't bad it's the person wielding it. One takes precautions around people wielding hammers, maybe we need to also take precautions with AI as well.