CHARBONNEAU – Why I use AI in my writing; it’s a refined search engine

 AI IS JUST A TOOL.  I use it the same way I use a word processor; since I’m a lousy speller, it flags my misspelling. I use it the same way I use a calculator; arithmetic is so tedious.

It’s just another source for references.

When I wrote my first column for the Kamloops Daily News 26 years ago, my resources were limited to newspapers and magazines. I used to clip articles and save them in a file folder.

Sometimes I went to my set of Encyclopedia Britannica. I still have them, collecting dust. For some reason I can’t seem to part with the set. They look so lovely on the shelf and give my home office an air of authority.

Early word processors didn’t have spell check. So, when I was given the Oxford Canadian Dictionary for a birthday gift, it became a valuable resource.

When the internet came along, I used Google to search for references. That’s when Google became a verb. When you looked things up, you googled them. In 2006, the verb was added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

When OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, a new world of research opened up. Threatened by loss of traffic, Google had to adjust its search engine to include AI. There doesn’t seem to be a verb for searching by AI.  Chatting for information sounds a little awkward.

Generative AI has opened a whole new way to cheat. Students claim credit for essays written by AI. Job seekers overload prospective employers with AI created resumes. Lawyers go to court with fictitious references to cases.

And newspapers are in a quandary.  Unlike social media, newspapers have a reputation to uphold. They rely on authentic reporting that is not manufactured by some tool.

The Globe and Mail’s Standards Editor Sandra Martin writes:

“The Globe and Mail’s policy is clear: ‘The use of generative AI for writing or editing your work is strictly prohibited,’ states the newly published guidance for freelance contributors, which applies to all content, including reported news, features, opinion and lifestyle stories. ‘This includes everything from grammar and style revisions to structural rewrites and condensing drafts to meet a word count.’ If it involves ‘copying text into or out of a chatbot,’ that use of AI is not permitted.”

Then again, Martin says: “Certain AI tools and use cases are permitted with careful human supervision, and these too are described in The Globe and Mail’s policy.”

I agree with that. As a tool, AI doesn’t have to rob a writer of their identity.

For me, AI is a refined search engine. When I look things up, it gives me the sources that it found.

What’s critical is that a writer is not seduced by the slick responses, as if you are talking to a person – it’s just a machine.

Please be assured, dear reader, that I will never surrender my voice to a cloud of statistically related words.

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://closetproductions.ca/EyeView/eyeviewcover.htm