ChatGPT and AI writing
Explore how ChatGPT transforms writing by saving time and resources, while also posing challenges for the future of aspiring writers.
Duration: 1:12 | Size: 1.4 MB
ChatGPT and the like are already working in the economy, creatng first-draft or low-/mid-value content. In the hands of experienced writers and editors, this is a huge time- and money-saver. This alone is “worth it”. There are many uses for this outside of creating search engine bait and gaming Google.
The outputs of ChatGPT or other AI-based writing can easily be abused, just like any writing. You could use it to generate (merely) SEO-based content. You could fail to read and edit its outputs. You could consume this content without being critical. All these things already happen today. Just because content is generated by some AI doesn’t change the basic rules of reading, writing, and criticizing.
A big challenge I see with ChatGPT or any AI writer is that it “break” the writing learning process.
It can easily and affordably replace first-draft or low-level writing, for the use of currently experienced writers and editors. Unfortunately, writers become good writers by writing, and they frequently start by writing content like this. If there is no more opportunity to learn through this kind of writing, how are we going to make the next generation of writers?
The agent-shaped org chart
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AI as staff, not software
Two frames for what AI is doing to work. The tool frame makes tools smarter. The staff frame makes roles unnecessary. Those aren't the same product, the same company, or the same industry.
Knowledge work was never work
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The work of being available now
A book on AI, judgment, and staying human at work.
The practice of work in progress
Practical essays on how work actually gets done.
The file I almost made twice
A small operational footgun that runs everywhere — building a parallel system when the one you have is fine.
The actor doesn't get to be the verifier
The worker isn't lying. The worker is reporting what it thought it did, which is always one step removed from what the world actually shows. The fix isn't more self-honesty. The fix is a different pair of eyes.
Shopping is the last mile
Every meal planning app treats cooking as the hard problem and shopping as a logistics detail. They have it backwards. Cooking is mostly solved. Shopping is the last mile.
AI writing? Same rules as for writing
Explore why AI-generated content deserves the same scrutiny as traditional writing, focusing on quality, accuracy, and transparency in the writing process.
The work that remains
When AI handles implementation, the human job shifts from doing the work to understanding the work. Speed without understanding is just technical debt with better commit messages.
Manual fluency is the prerequisite for agent supervision
You cannot responsibly automate what you cannot do manually. AI agents speed up work for people who already know how to do it. They do not replace the need to learn the work in the first place.