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As someone who makes a good portion of my living as a writer, I choose to embrace ChatGPT to make me more productive. That's how I stay relevant. For example,

As someone who makes a good portion of my living as a writer, I choose to embrace ChatGPT to make me more productive. That's how I stay relevant. For example, today it helped me write a press release. We had dialogue back and forth. I told it to ask me thoughtful questions, and it did. After 5 minutes of back-and-forth, I had the bones of a high-quality press release put together. I then edited it until it met my standards, and submitted it. This process would have previously taken me a few hours. Today it took less than 30 minutes. As a result, my value to my employer has gone up because of ChatGPT. I'm able to get a lot more done with it, and they'd be fools to simply replace me with the bot. In other words, and I'm hardly the only one saying this: ChatGPT is not a replacement for people. It's an augmentation. It's a bicycle for the mind, to steal Steve Jobs's famous metaphor. I think if you're a writer who refuses to embrace this new reality, you should absolutely be worried. But if you embrace the inevitable, the combination of a skilled copywriter + ChatGPT is incredible. It's my writing partner. I'm still in charge, calling all the shots. But my writing partner helps to prevent writer's block. Often, I won't use a single word it produced. Instead, it gives me a starting point. Sometimes that starting point is little more than "I need to do better than what this machine produced, because this is crap." But it's soooo much easier to improve on garbage than it is to create out of the blue. So, I don't think AI is coming for our jobs as writers. If used well, it's the best writing partner you could ask for.

ZooCow 3y ago
> In other words, and I'm hardly the only one saying this: ChatGPT is not a replacement for people. It's an augmentation. It's a bicycle for the mind, to steal Steve Jobs's famous metaphor. This is the analogy that jumped out to me as well. LLMs seem to be more of a vehicle than a destination. Like a bicycle, LLMs need to be operated with the direction and effort of an operator to ensure it stays on course and doesn’t veer into traffic. Continuing the analogy, I suspect that LLMs will open up traditional white collar jobs to more people. More people can get to the destination on time with the aid of a bicycle than on foot.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
dinvlad 3y ago
Very good insights! Just watched an interview with another writer last night (Simon Winchester), sharing your thoughts on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfOy6puBm6U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfOy6puBm6U
ertian 3y ago
You're right, but if you can do in 30 minutes what used to take a day, then we're going to need a lot fewer writers...
- nickelcitymario 3y ago
  ...or we produce a lot more content. ...or we can be freed to spend our time making the content better than ever, because we didn't squander our whole day on the first draft.
  - krapp 3y ago
    If you can suddenly produce the content of three writers, two other writers are getting fired, and you'll be tasked with the work of five, under the same deadline. That's the way capitalism works.
    - nickelcitymario 3y ago
      Seems like an overly cynical take on capitalism, and I'm not exactly capitalism's biggest fan. All businesses are in the business of maximizing profits. If they can be more profitable with fewer writers, of course they'll reduce staff. But if X content produces Y results, one should expect that 4X content will produce 4Y results. Profitable activities get invested in. Cost centers get optimized. ChatGPT lowers the bar for content creation, which actually raises the bar for producing content that will stand out. If you're just copying/pasting content from ChatGPT, you'll have a lot more content, but it won't stand out. It's content for the sake of content, as opposed to content that's meant to engage and persuade a person to spend money on your products. This is especially true with LLMs. They can't come up with truly creative content. LLMs, by design, return the most average content imaginable. This has tremendous value in the hands of a skilled writer/editor. Remember: The purpose of marketing is to make your brand and your products stand out from the crowd. You're not going to achieve that by producing what is, by definition, the most average content possible. ChatGPT makes me a better writer. That's all there is to it. Businesses that don't believe content can sell shouldn't have any writers at all. Those that do should invest in AI-competent writers more than ever. I maintain that AI is only a threat to me as a writer if either (a) I'm a hack who produces low-value content, or (b) my employer is stupid. I'd rather not work for stupid, anyway.

ZooCow 3y ago

> In other words, and I'm hardly the only one saying this: ChatGPT is not a replacement for people. It's an augmentation. It's a bicycle for the mind, to steal Steve Jobs's famous metaphor. This is the analogy that jumped out to me as well. LLMs seem to be more of a vehicle than a destination. Like a bicycle, LLMs need to be operated with the direction and effort of an operator to ensure it stays on course and doesn’t veer into traffic. Continuing the analogy, I suspect that LLMs will open up traditional white collar jobs to more people. More people can get to the destination on time with the aid of a bicycle than on foot.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

dinvlad 3y ago

Very good insights! Just watched an interview with another writer last night (Simon Winchester), sharing your thoughts on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfOy6puBm6U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfOy6puBm6U

ertian 3y ago

You're right, but if you can do in 30 minutes what used to take a day, then we're going to need a lot fewer writers...

nickelcitymario 3y ago
...or we produce a lot more content. ...or we can be freed to spend our time making the content better than ever, because we didn't squander our whole day on the first draft.
- krapp 3y ago
  If you can suddenly produce the content of three writers, two other writers are getting fired, and you'll be tasked with the work of five, under the same deadline. That's the way capitalism works.
  - nickelcitymario 3y ago
    Seems like an overly cynical take on capitalism, and I'm not exactly capitalism's biggest fan. All businesses are in the business of maximizing profits. If they can be more profitable with fewer writers, of course they'll reduce staff. But if X content produces Y results, one should expect that 4X content will produce 4Y results. Profitable activities get invested in. Cost centers get optimized. ChatGPT lowers the bar for content creation, which actually raises the bar for producing content that will stand out. If you're just copying/pasting content from ChatGPT, you'll have a lot more content, but it won't stand out. It's content for the sake of content, as opposed to content that's meant to engage and persuade a person to spend money on your products. This is especially true with LLMs. They can't come up with truly creative content. LLMs, by design, return the most average content imaginable. This has tremendous value in the hands of a skilled writer/editor. Remember: The purpose of marketing is to make your brand and your products stand out from the crowd. You're not going to achieve that by producing what is, by definition, the most average content possible. ChatGPT makes me a better writer. That's all there is to it. Businesses that don't believe content can sell shouldn't have any writers at all. Those that do should invest in AI-competent writers more than ever. I maintain that AI is only a threat to me as a writer if either (a) I'm a hack who produces low-value content, or (b) my employer is stupid. I'd rather not work for stupid, anyway.