AI and A3 Content
Using AI Efficiently While Maintaining Humanity
The conversation around artificial Intelligence (AI) ramped up as I was being laid off from my job in 2023. While I was busy traveling and healing, use of AI in all areas of life has evolved. But for me as a writer, I needed to process my feelings on using AI for content development.
This is more writing-related than travel-related. I get it. But I am already seeing the massive trust issues around how much of the information we see is real or fake, so I wanted to share with you how I incorporate AI into my Annie All Around content development to establish trust with my community.
Except for the boring legal stuff or content I am not an expert in producing (e.g., the Privacy Policy, Terms of Use), everything on Annie All Around was originally drafted, researched, and refined by me with no AI assistance. Anything less is a disservice.
Once I am happy with my draft, I use ChatGPT to assist with:
Final Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation (GSP) Reviews: These catch errors that are harder to see, making my final reviews more efficient and saving me time.
Writing Prompts: If I have writers block and need that spark to get going again or for drafting social media blurbs (though I always revise them).
Image Generation: I’ll use ChatGPT to produce a properly sourced image when I:
Don’t have an original photo
Can’t find anything on my favorite royalty-free sites
Need a very basic image
I was initially skeptical of adding AI to my content development process, but I have since established a cooperative relationship with ChatGPT to keep the integrity of my content while getting the hard-to-see errors (I say “relationship” because ChatGPT is intuitive and a bit fun to interact with).
Using ChatGPT to assist with polish makes me more confident in the content I produce for you. It also keeps me on a more efficient updating schedule and makes writing fun for me.
Regardless of the extent you have AI involved in your writing, you MUST always review thoroughly. Accepting and distributing AI-generated content without review is not acceptable. At best, it will give you a head start on content, but it:
Can be wrong
Might not capture your style
Does not reflect your voice
Anyone who has had a professional communications career or earned a writing-intensive degree really should write their own stuff. My degree is in journalism. I have over 25 years of corporate communications experience, including a decade in web content development and management. There is no excuse for me to generate content in AI and sell it as mine.
For people who don’t write well or do not like to write, I believe using AI to produce well-written versions of their original thoughts for emails and other business communications is more than acceptable. However, they are likely not in professional communications careers, and it lets them use their time for things at which they truly excel.
I have started to explore other AI applications that save me time on other mundane tasks related to my business or project management so I work smarter. Ultimately, the novelty of AI will wear off and we’ll figure out how to best incorporate it in the background of our lives so we live our best, healthy lives.