Something I’m Learning
You know how there are things happening that you know you must pay more attention to but just aren’t fully motivated to yet? Things that smart people around you casually refer to assuming you know all about it – but you don’t. Perhaps, for you, it’s the rise of electric cars. Or the decline of democracy. Or Bitcoin. Or your cholesterol.
For me, it’s generative AI. Sure, I have a ChatGPT account but apart from playing around very occasionally for fun – ‘Write a funny poem about Roshan Paul’ – I’ve not been serious about using it. I’ve struggled to know what exactly to use it for day-to-day in my job. Then two things happened in the same week that forced me to acknowledge the old dog in me that’s reluctant to learn new tech.
The first was when I met a friend for a drink who was in town for work. We only had an hour. As my friend – who works as a contractor for a high-level government official – walked in to the bar, he was staring at his phone and looking annoyed. He came up to me and said, “I’m really sorry but I just got an email from the Secretary’s office with an assignment that I need to do right away. I feel really bad.” As he took off his jacket and slid into the booth, he then said, “Oh screw it, I’m just going to ChatGPT it. Give me 5 minutes.”
My first thought was, ‘Is this really how public policy gets made?’ My second thought was, ‘I would NEVER have thought to do that’. Newly aware of how far behind the times I’ve fallen technologically, I said, “But I thought ChatGPT couldn’t access stuff less than three years old’. He looked up from his screen with a pitying look in his eyes. “That was last year.” A minute later, he hit Send and looked up, “So what’s new with you?”. (Meanwhile, in another part of town, a Cabinet member was opening their email and marveling at how quickly this contractor works.)
The second incident happened a few days later. As my team gathered to discuss an RFP we were bidding on, someone noted that a key criteria was to ensure that applicants to the program being funded in the proposal were not going to use ChatGPT or other AI programs to write their applications. The intent of this rule is to level the playing field amongst the many thousands of applicants. As the conversation proceeded, I grew more and more convinced that the funders had it backwards. Since AI will become ubiquitous in our daily lives, rather than monitoring that nobody is cheating, a different approach to leveling the playing field could be to invite everyone to use AI to write their essays and then pick the most unique and different ones. While there are also flaws with this approach, any other strategy seems like attempting to hold back the tides.
I didn’t share my thoughts with my team at that moment. Partly because we had no choice but to respond to the proposal as asked. But also partly because I remembered feeling inadequate before my ChatGPT-wielding buddy and therefore that proselytizing AI would be very much not walking my talk.
So now I’m serious. I want to learn how to better use AI in my day-to-day. If you have an AI tool that you love, and especially if you are frequently using that tool to do something that you used to do manually, please hit Reply and let me know. Thank you in advance!
PS: As I wrote in my intro post, Slow Writing, I don’t use AI to draft these newsletters. These musings are all un-augmented, my-own-brain-generated, and one-step-removed-from-a-typewriter. For me, that’s part of why I do it.
Something to Consider
Turns out I’m not the only one still figuring out how to use AI regularly. One of my favorite podcasts, The Ezra Klein Show, recently addressed that very topic. How Should I Be Using AI Right Now?
Something to Quote
The problem with machines is not that they’ll rebel against their human masters but that they’ll follow their orders to the letter.
- Guiliano da Empoli, The Wizard of the Kremlin
I've been experimenting with it for some tasks. Sometimes it's helpful, other times not. But, I can see that it is very powerful and will become more useful over time. I think it's excellent for making first drafts. It can be really helpful for initial ideation - comes up with ideas, organization, and categories quickly and sometimes with elements that I wouldn't have thought of - or would have taken me a lot longer.
I think it it's a good writer. Not excellent, but very good. And it writes in English. For that reason, I can see that chatgpt is a great leveller for people who lack good writing skills, or for whom English is a challenge. I think it might really contribute to the localization agenda by allowing non-English speaking candidates, for example, to make bids for jobs or consultancies that are much better quality.
totally agree.....i have resisted forever but now im wondering why? my son said its the same as using google search and i cant seem to find a flaw in this argument