There has been a lot of talk about artificial intelligence lately. A lot of people seem to fear it. Most of the people that seem to fear it, are writers and artists and researchers. I discussed this a bit more in-depth in another post. I don't think as an artist, I need to worry about artificial intelligence. What I think you can do very well is help people who have physical disabilities that would otherwise struggle to get there ideas down. Now, I wouldn't know how this would work for the more visual artists like photographers, but certainly for disabled writers, it could help.
I have the use of one hand. I type with one hand. So does a friend. Our mind is much faster than our hand can type. Dictation can work as an alternative to AI, I just used it for the above paragraph. But if you use dictation for any length of time, for something that is as long as a decent blog post, then it can be more time consuming to fix dictations errors. Especially with a Brummie accent... a Brummie accent and a speech impediment. Alexa is enough to deal with, sometimes.
Using Artificial Intelligence in a play-test
Recently I played with this software by Anyword and got it to generate some blog posts for me. Four in total. It finished three before I ran out of credits. I liked its ability to generate content based on my bullet-points. What it gave me is not what I would consider a full post. In total, it gave me one paragraph per section. Approximately 4-6 sentences. This is my work fine if you are creating a mini blog—a blog that only contains snippets of information. But if you are attempting to create longer ones with detail, then it hasn't gave you a full blog.
Am I disappointed by that? NOPE.
In my view, what it has done is it's taken my bullet points, and with them, has given me a clear abstract, clear angle on where to go... the angle was already there in the bullet points, but it has made it clear sentences. It has given me the bones. Essentially, I made an outline and then it made an extended outline.
I don't have to spend half the day writing the bare bones of a blog post. Because of search engine optimism and wanting to create engaging posts that are worth while, I have blog rules. These include: maximum words that go under each section, length of paragraphs, and the minimum length of a blogpost.
AI Text Generators Saving Spoons
By taking my bullet points, which are not in full sentences, AI generators like Anyword are able to give me the bare bones of at least something. Approximately four-six sentences per generated paragraph. Yes, I may have had them in a form of bullet point, but in total that's maybe 20 words or so. It takes a lot of work and energy to type with one hand. It's one of the reasons I haven't been blogging a lot as I have been using that energy on my PhD.
I tried a few free trial ones. I cannot remember the name of them all but most of them limited me to a paragraph at a time. Admittedly, it could have been a limit with the free trial, but I doubt that was the case for all of them.
This one paragraph only generated text wasn't really that beneficial for me. They were abstracts of the post. My bullet points were, to me, a form of abstract, that's not what I needed. I needed a fleshed out outline that came from my bullet points, that I could then edit, and that I could then make my own.
Thoughts on AI Text Generator
Usually, I try and not be bias. If I am using software, I try and give alternatives that exist unless I am specifically reviewing that project—like I did with dyslexic software, Claroread.
But I have to be honest, the only reason that the other generations are not named is because they were not memorable. They were not memorable because they were not helpful for me.
The only real two I found helpful were Anyword and Jetpack. After putting my bullet points into the software, Anyword has given me 250-400 words in about a minute. It can take me a whole day to reach that amount.
Getting these few words, I am then able to edit the paragraphs. Add personality. My voice. And afterwards, I had energy to spare. Energy I could put to another post... or to my PhD or reading. Because of Anyword, I had spoons left to do something else!
There is also the recent Jetpack AI Text Generator. I have played with it. Like Anyword, you can put a string of text / outline into the generator. However, while Anyword will only give you a paragraph per section, Jetpack will write the whole blog post. Or whatever you ask it to write (like a story).
As mentioned in my previous post, I don't think artists have to fear A.I. but the Jetpack one is good at imitating and it gives anywhere between 400-800 words. That said, the text is still editable. With my play, I have used the generator, rearranged where the sentences went, omitted parts and extended other parts with examples. So it is still be possible to use the generated text as a basis and then make the content mine.
Would I continue to use Text Generators?
The short answer, yes.
The more in-depth answer is, it depends. I love that Anyword and Jetpack saved me spoons with three posts by creating the bare bones of the content. I absolutely love that I am able to then add my own voice and creativity, make it more engaging and perhaps add more detail that I would have missed by the time my spoons burned out. For me, it wouldn't be taking away my creative process, but aiding it. I would be using it as a disability aid. By the end of it, the robotic voice would be replaced with character.
But that's if I continued by using Anyword or Jetpack.
Other AI text generators have a journey to go to be useful as disability aids. The others only gave me a sole paragraph. I wasn't able to split the post into content sections. It really was more like a summary than anything. So for a disability aid, Anyword and Jetpack are the only ones that meet my needs.
Jetpack is relatively cheap at £9 a month for I think unlimited credits???... I say cheap, but when you have limited income—like me—it's actually not that cheap. Anyword £20 a month for the least amount of credits and the other generators are just as extortionate. I'm a student with limited income. If I was in a stable job, earning a salary with enough cash flow to afford hobbies, then £20 a month generator might be worth it. For now, it's not. Even if it helps me physically.
Although I think I prefer Anyword, at the minute, if I did invest in an AI generator (no plan for that) I would go with Jetpack because of it's cheaper cost.
AI Text generators have the potential to give someone a voice. It writes clearly and the author using it can (and should) revise and edit the content to make sure their voice is heard. That's the importance part if used as an aid... that voices are heard, as long as most of the content belongs to them. I can see ai helping with that.