Is AI the future of writing?
As a writer, one thing I struggle most with is essay writing. The obstacles I often face are writer’s block or feeling intimidated by the amount of information on the Internet. However, I recently found out about Artificial Intelligence (AI) that can help address these issues.
Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the capability of computers and other machines to perform tasks that would typically require human intelligence, such as interpreting language, recognizing patterns, learning from experience, and making choices. Recently, writing AI has been on the rise. These programs can generate answers based on the written prompts given. These answers weren’t just one line sentences but were chunks of text with detailed explanations. I was pretty impressed by the answers given and wanted to test their abilities to see how they would fare and whether they solved the obstacles I faced.
To proceed with my test, I chose 3 different AI programmes. In order to keep the tests equal, these were the variables I kept constant.
Variables
- The topic
I constantly set the topic as “I tried using 3 types of AI to write an essay”. 2. Style of writing The style of writing chosen was blog article; informative and informal. Keeping all these variables constant, I tested out three types of writing AI; ChatGPT, Copy.ai and Rytr.
*The Patatas is not sponsored or affiliated with any of these companies
ChatGPT
ChatGPT has a very simple user interface just like a chatbot, where you simply type a question and it immediately generates an answer. I just typed in the topic and it generated an output within seconds. It likes to list points especially for longer answers and also ends its answer with a pleasant conclusion. However, there is not much autonomy over what is written. You can regenerate an answer, but it mainly just paraphrases its output. Additionally, you cannot choose what type of output it gives. It may give you an outline or a paragraph, but it depends on the AI.
Pros
- Concise output
Cons
- Lack of autonomy over writing style and tone
Cost: Free to use with no limit, but it does occasionally become unavailable because of the high volume of people using it.
Copy.ai
Out of the three AI used, Copy.ai stood out the most to me. Upon entering it, it offered me many different types of writing, from blogs, to emails, to copywriting a business product. It also offered me the option on which area of writing I wanted to focus on, such as a blog title and introduction generator.
Copy.ai also has the option for you to give them your blog titles and keywords to narrow down your focus to a particular topic if you have a broader subject.
The human-like writing impressed me and it also gave the option of different tones such as friendly, professional and persuasive. Copy.ai can also be used for different languages including but not limited to Chinese, Indonesian, German… The selection of languages is limited for now (it only offers three Asian languages) but I foresee it to expand in the near future.
Pros
- Different writing options offered
- Can narrow down writing scope through keywords
- Human-like writing
- Different writing tones available
- Can generate text in different languages
Cons
- Limited language options
Cost: Copy.ai gives a free trial of 7 days and costs $49/month after the trial.
Rtyr
Rytr was relatively simple to use too. To use it, I first had to choose from many different writing styles such as blog idea and outline and blog section.
Just like Copy.ai, it had a section for you to enter your keywords to narrow down your scope, but had the option to enter your section topic instead of your blog title.
I liked it provided both options of an article outline and a section writing. I also liked that it had different tones. However, Rytr cannot generate a whole written essay, which may lead to an incoherent essay when you generate each article section individually.
Pros
- Different writing options offered
- Can narrow down writing scope through keywords
- Wider range of languages offered, especially Asian languages like Chinese, Japanese Vietnamese and Malay
Cons
- Unable to generate a whole essay
Cost: Free to use but has premium monthly plans for more upgraded features.
Now comes the real test. Can it write an academic essay? I chose a topic I’ve written before for one of my writing modules and compared how it does. My essay was on “Using the Precautionary Principle to evaluate why restrictions should be placed on palm oil production in Indonesia.”
How did they fare comparatively?
ChatGPT
- Detailed
- Multiple points
- Clean
- My favourite out of all these for outline writing
Copy.ai
- Can generate a full essay
- Lacks examples in arguments
Rytr
- Basic outline
- Very bare bones
- Good to start
Conclusion
This was a very interesting experiment and I came to the conclusion that AI is and isn’t the future of writing. Firstly, it is because the technology that powers AI has recently become powerful enough to be used in real-world applications. AI can help writers produce more content faster and at lower cost, which means more opportunities for writers to work on their projects. However, the use of AI in writing is growing, but it’s not yet replacing human writers. What we’re seeing now is just its potential, but we cannot determine if it is enough to replace actual writers. In fact, many writers are resistant to the idea that AI can take their jobs away — because they’re so good at what they do. And that will not change anytime soon. Just like the potential of cryptocurrency, this may yet be another viral technological innovation that may fade out. There are currently many ongoing debates on whether AI will negatively affect the way students will think or be taught. This may cause regulations to be placed on AI that may also curb its potential. Additionally, what AI cannot replace is a personal style and voice. AI is based on machine learning, mean, median and mode of knowledge. Thus, though AI may reproducible outputs, it cannot reproduce distinct styles of thought and writing. Even the AI agreed with me on this point
