Well folks, it looks like AI is here to stay. As someone who is a writer and researcher, it raises quite a conundrum. I could eschew any AI assistance with my writing, or I could embrace the technology and experiment with how it can help enhance and ease my workload. I have chosen the latter, but with limits. I imagine this will evolve over time along with the technology. As a follow up to recent posts on AI and writing done by fellow librarian and blogger, Judit Ward, I’m sharing some of my experiences below.
I have found generative AI such as ChatGPT to be very helpful in creating outlines for a variety of projects, including books, articles and presentations. These outlines serve as a launching pad to delve into more detail about each individual talking point. I have also used ChatGPT to help flesh out a rough outline I already created, which helps reinforce many of the main topics I had pinpointed. When doing this exercise, I often ask the question in a variety of slightly different ways just to see if anything changes (which it often does, even if just a little). Again, it gives more detail and depth to work with.
But while using ChatGPT in this way is a great jumping off point for getting organized, it is important to note that results within topic headings can be very duplicative, which is why I only use it for creating an outline or overview. The summaries it creates are often simply regurgitations of concepts. Rewriting and shuffling around of information is necessary, as well as doing due diligence on fact checking. I have also seen some AI hallucinations in result sets. Hopefully this will get better over time.
I have also used AI tools to get a handle on book and article ideas. For example, asking about the viability of a book on a certain topic, or if one has already been done. This is helpful, and sources such as ChatGPT will then produce an outline/overview based on that subject. Again, it is important to note that this can also be repetitious. In addition, I have noticed results can vary greatly even from day to day. I have done a search one day, and then the following day or a week later a different answer comes up for the same search. It seems that the “searching” by the AI tool is always stacking the most recent or “new” information on top. So, for example, as new insights and data come online, the tool is picking it up. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but just something to be aware of.
It is also funny that tools like Google AI Overview can produce wording and data based on my own work, likely because I have done some very niche research within the realm of culinary history. As it searches the internet for what is already there, it often spits back the very same research I have already done. But if someone else is looking for one of the topics I have focused on in the past, it is honestly helpful in giving me some “free advertising.” For example, when doing a search on cooking and “Mrs. Goodfellow” (who was the topic of my first book, Mrs. Goodfellow: The Story of America’s First Cooking School), this was one of the results on how to find recipes related to Mrs. Goodfellow’s cooking:
- Look for books or research by Becky Diamond:
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- Author Becky Diamond has written extensively on culinary history and has a book titled Mrs. Goodfellow: The Story of America’s First Cooking School. Her work is likely to be a great resource for finding authentic period recipes.
That actually made me smile, ha-ha!
I have also used ChatGPT to help with bibliography entries, which has mixed results and not something I recommend. A citation generator such as EndNote proves to be a better option.
And PowerPoint and Canva both have AI tools now to help with designing slides and other graphics. The image above was generated via Canva. This can be a big help with any design needs for presentations and blog posts, etc.
For Rutgers Libraries books and other material that can help navigate AI and writing questions, try:
- AI and Authorship in Scholarly Communication : Writing with Intelligence by Heather Moulaison-Sandy – explores the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as it pertains to scholarly research and writing.
- Ethical Considerations of AI-Generated Writing – video with Ceceilia Parnther on why AI writing can be biased, false, and dated, how this affects the quality of writing for AI.
- Interactive storytelling : a cross-media approach to writing, producing and editing with AI by Antonio Pizzo, Vincenzo Lombardo and Rossana Damiano – introduction to producing and editing interactive storytelling content, and to the platforms that host it.
- Who Wrote This? : How AI and the Lure of Efficiency Threaten Human Writing by Naomi S. Baron – linguist and educator Naomi Baron explores the connections between human literacy and today’s technology in order to understand how AI is redefining what it means to write and think.
- Writing AI Prompts for Dummies by Stephanie Diamond and Jeffrey Allan – explains how to confidentially write effective AI prompts.
- Writing Futures: Collaborative, Algorithmic, Autonomous by Ann Hill Duin and Isabel Pedersen – Outlines how to understand and write alongside non-human agents, the impact of algorithms and AI on writing, and how to accommodate relationships with autonomous agents.
