AI eh?
The voice of AI
Recently, I have been thinking a lot about AI but I don’t think AI is thinking about me. I’m not really using AI in my personal or professional life, and I have only just realised this. Not to be a pious so and so, but I can say hand on heart that I only use ChatGPT when someone teaches me a new trick. For example, have you heard of the colour analysis trick?
Take a picture of yourself
Put it into Canva or paint or any app/program that lets you pull colour codes
Select the colour dropper
Take the colour hex number from your complexion, eyes and hair
Put those colour hex numbers/codes into ChatGPT and ask what season you are
It kind of works too but it is just a bit of gimmicky fun. ChatGPT has been heralded as a beacon of endless ideas and content and we are all quickly learning to use this new tech to our advantage but for writing content, where does that leave your voice? Exhibit A, B, C:
Hey ChatGPT,
“…please write a professional email asking a design contractor about how they prefer to be invoiced”
“…please write a friendly but Karen-esque letter to the council about the rising water charges”
“…please write a poem about how tiktok is the downfall of society in the voice of Walt Whitman”
All of these ChatGPT requests are trying to manage tone whilst trying to outsource the act of writing. In my normal life I write sans ChatGPT, and therefore writing takes a lot of time. For example, and I promise I’m not trying to guilt or appall you, this post took about 3-4 hours to write. It took time because I write iteratively from a simple structure, then I compile sentences, reorder them about 100 times to create an argument and refine it to sound like it belongs in my canon of writing.
I was in a professional development day recently when the instructor started to describe AI’s tone. Thats right, AI has an identifiable profile in written text. Capitol Technology University has a whole page that is worth reading on how to spot writing generated by AI. The most important quality they described was:
“Inconsistencies and repetition: Occasionally, AI produces nonsensical or odd sentences which can be a clear indicator of AI-generated text. Abrupt shifts in tone, style, or topic can point to AI that is struggling to maintain coherent ideas.”
This one was the first point the instructor raised. She specifically mentioned that in a conjoined sentence, AI will commonly put the idea of the sentence in the second half. The robot gods that be, will fluff a sentence to its hearts content and you are no better off for it.
To me, your voice is where you pull the words you choose, sentence structure, ideas gathered into one written output. These choices are what make you YOU. Tone, a human quality, is something we all think about when we are writing for ourselves. AI saves you time, but I think when it comes to the tone of your writing, it’s time well spent. So has AI been thinking about me? It’s an unequivocal, no.
Thanks for reading! If you would like to check out some of my other non-AI generated creations, have a look at these:
Online Learning for Substackers: How to make a SubStack logo using Canva
Join my family’s Kimchilary Book Club here
My brother sent me AI-generated poetry that he "wrote." It was beyond dismal.
Agreed!