At a routine dermatologist appointment, the doctor, making the requisite small talk, found out that I’m a grant writer. She admitted to being a poor writer and speller, though I’m not sure I believed her. She has a med-school degree, after all. Then she asked me a question I haven’t been asked before–surprisingly, given writing is both my profession and primary hobby.
She was curious if, and how, I used AI in my writing. Though I gave her a quick answer, I’ve been mulling over the question ever since.
The short answer is, I infrequently use AI, for a few reasons.
First, my employer has an official AI policy. Even if there weren’t an official policy, I never want to use AI to do my job for me. I believe that putting forth my own, and my best, effort honors the people and foundations with whom I work. I want to put in the time and effort to create quality grant proposals and reports that truly represent our school. I think, for the sake of my own integrity and the school I work for, that it’s important for me to do my own work.
Second, I use AI infrequently because I actually enjoy writing. Yes, there are days when writing is hard. I’m not a great thinker, and “writing is nature’s way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is” (a quote attributed to cartoonist Richard Guindon). However, I’m concerned that using AI to help me write would do to me what smartphones have done to most of us–weaken our cognitive function. Though designed to enhance learning and be helpful, I think that using AI in my writing would atrophy my writing muscles and decrease my ability to write well on my own. While time will tell the effects AI has on us longterm, I never want to become reliant on AI to help me write.
Third, I am increasingly suspicious of new technology. I am an old lady at heart. I’ve never been one to geek out on new tech and I’ve certainly never been an early adopter. I’m usually about 3-4 years behind on new technology. Though I don’t fear that AI will completely take over jobs like mine, I simply am not excited about technology that can replace humans in any capacity.
These caveats aside, I find AI helpful and even fun for certain use cases. Here are four ways I use AI:
1. I use AI to help me brainstorm. Most of the articles on this site I write on a whim. I try to set patterns for what I publish, and when. However, the topics can vary widely based on how I feel, what I’m musing on, observations, and circumstances. However, writer’s block is real, so I will occasionally ask an AI bot to help me brainstorm article topics or create a content calendar for this site.
2. I use AI as a better search engine. Sometimes, I want to use a metaphor or analogy in my writing but my mind goes blank. AI has made finding those easier. In the example above of how smartphones have weakened our cognitive function, I asked AI for an example of technology that was designed to be helpful but actually weakened cognitive function. Ironic, I guess.
I also will frequently skim the AI summaries of generic search engine results before scrolling the actual list. It’s helpful to see how AI has summarized the information I’m looking for and choose the website that seems most helpful without spending so much time scrolling or clicking on search results, only to come up short.
3. I use AI to help me generate a message. Once or twice, I have used AI to help me generate an email for work (this is within the acceptable use policy) to ensure clear communication. I always edit these messages, but AI helps me achieve brevity and clarity when needed. I also use AI as a thesaurus. I use this most when I have a word with a negative connotation and want to put a more positive spin on it. I’ve also used it to help me alliterate talking points. Or, if I need to write something that might come across poorly, then I will use AI to help me sound more polite.
For example, we started a tradition with our kids to use their birthday parties as an opportunity to be generous by having friends bring canned goods, instead of a gift, to donote to our church’s food pantry. (We reminded them that they would still get plenty of presents from family members!) However, it’s hard to explain this well on a birthday party invitation. So, we had AI write a couple of sentences explaining what we were asking. From what I can tell, it went over well with the parents who brought their kids to the party.
4. I use AI to create images. My husband and I recently discovered Canva’s great AI design tool for creating images. I created this blog’s header image with it. While I typically use Unsplash, occasionally I can’t find quite what I’m looking for. Today’s blog post was a good excuse to try out an AI image generator for header photos.
I have also used Canva’s AI tool to create fun cartoons that look like my kids. Recently, I was designing my son’s birthday party invitation. He wants a superhero theme, so I used Canva’s AI image generator to create a cartoon superhero that looks like him. And that’s the fun part of AI!
