Emerging from AI wonderland with some contrary thinking

It’s time to share.

I’ve spent the last year steeped in AI.

First as a user, seeing where there was opportunity to improve my work with generative AI. (More on this later.)

Then as a writer, interviewing experts and writing for clients on the topic of AI.

Finally, as a graduate student in pursuit of a master’s degree, studying the intersection of generative AI and strategic communication, and helping several professors update their books and teaching materials to include AI.

As an analytical creative, I feel like I’ve been living in a wonderland of possibility for the last year.

But it’s not until recent conversations that I’ve seen the effect of it all.

You see, I went into my graduate studies a wide-eyed optimist …

and I came out on the other side a much more pragmatic thinker around the topic of AI.

And in a polarized world where most people are either all-in on AI or vehemently against it, I’ve been getting some surprised responses from people when I talk about what I’ve learned and what my opinions are now.

There’s a lot to boil down — and honestly, this is a topic I find it much easier to speak about than to write about for some reason (I’ve actually been doing a lot of speaking lately at events, for groups and on podcasts) — but there are a few things that I realized it was time to share directly in a newsletter.

First, what concerns me ...

AI is being used to replace, not complement, worker effort. This isn’t good or bad in itself, but it does have implications. My studies have uncovered that using generative AI to write in a business setting cuts writing time in half — and doubles editing time. And there is absolutely no change in the quality of the written content.?

So if it doesn’t improve anything, if it doesn’t cut down the time to create a piece of writing and it doesn’t improve that writing, what’s the big deal? Immediately, nothing. Long term, though, the implications are serious.?

First, you’ve added unnecessary steps, complexity and tools to your writing process. For marketing teams, this means streamlining, simplification, and cost-cutting will be much more challenging in the future.?

And second, the act of writing, which is the part of the process that enables critical thinking and gives way to creativity, has been eliminated. If you’ve noticed the tsunami of bland, unhelpful, unoriginal content showing up in the SERPs, on social and on company websites lately, you’re not crazy. Increased use of AI to create written content (among other things — but I’m a writer, so I’m staying in my lane, here) has stripped the internet of the original thinking of experts, the voices of experience, and maybe most importantly, the stories.

And that leads to another major concern of mine, which came directly from the academic research I conducted in the spring: language homogeny.

One of the greatest things about being human is our beautiful nuance and diversity. And that is expressed through our use of language. Some of the most startling studies I found in my academic research revealed that AI-generated text is already shifting language norms and homogenizing the language we use — online and offline.?

In one experiment in particular, I was struck that image captions written with predictive text suggestions were shorter and less creative. Considering that stylistic variation accounts for much of the meaning in written text, writing less creative and more predictable messaging has serious consequences for strategic communication. For example, it could make branding messaging less differentiated from competitors; or for internal communications or marketing messaging, it could create misunderstanding or cause recipients to ignore messages entirely.

But even with these concerns, I still feel excited at the possibilities.

If we stop trying to get AI to do our thinking and creative work for us, and start using it to think better and be more creative, there’s a lot more we could do.

There is indication in the research that generative AI can help people who are strong ideators but who struggle to structure their ideas in a way that clearly communicates them with others. For these creative thinkers, using a tool like ChatGPT to structure their ideas into a logical outline could be a game-changer — and a gift to the world when we finally get the opportunity to understand their thinking.

You can use generative AI to analyze and engage with your own writing, too, to make it stronger and more original. I personally use it as an expanded thesaurus, to brainstorm analogies, and to poke holes in my own thinking. For example, after I write a piece, I’ll ask AI to summarize it for me. If I haven’t made my point clearly, it becomes painfully obvious in the summary. (I talked about this in more detail on the AI Optimist Podcast recently. Give it a listen.)

I have a lot more to say on the topic of generative AI — there are many more benefits and drawbacks than I named here — but this post is already novel-length. ??

What I want to wrap up with is this: Being human is more important than ever.

Sharing our expertise, telling our stories, and deploying our creativity are more important than ever.

It’s through these practices that we can connect with others, interpersonally and with the audiences we want to reach. This is how we lead with empathy, differentiate ourselves, and build relationships that stand the test of time.?

PS: Leave a comment if you want me to send you the list of references for the research I talked about here. Normally I’d include a list at the bottom of the newsletter — but this reference list is LONG!

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