The short answer: sometimes.
AI can certainly streamline our generative creativity, and help us move on our ideas faster and with less executive function expense. But…it can’t replace us just yet.
Take, for instance, the new built-in AI feature for WordPress sites like this one–which I noticed while moving through the final posting checklist on a recent piece, and idly clicked to see what it would give me. Here are my thoughts, presented relatively unadulterated:
Omg WordPress has an AI assistant now! This could be interesting.
…..
I AM SO ANNOYED.
Lemme take a closer look at this “advice”:
What does EXPAND even mean?!?! It smacks of basic writing advice shared by beginner writers–think your average high school freshman, rather than the level of expertise your clients probably expect. “Expand”, “provide more”, and “elaborate” need context and qualification or they’re an empty directive to increase length. To be fair, the AI does give slightly more specific suggestions for where that length could serve a reader, but without a sense of who my reader is or how they’re interacting with my text, the advice is…vague.
What is my goal? With whom? I don’t think the AI knows. And if it doesn’t know that, how does it know how long the piece should be? Why is it telling me to make it longer without a reason? At the most basic level, even one more sentence on each point flagged by the AI would make my post daunting. Given it was just a quick update about my plans here, I don’t need more than the few sentences I wrote–I didn’t have anything else to say.
UGH. Not every text is a five paragraph essay! I don’t need to flag a standardized introduction and conclusion just so an (admittedly mostly sophisticated) algorithm can spot them. Again, if they’re not serving my reader or my reason for writing, they’re just extra time I’m asking from my customers.
Finally, what is the POINT of an impersonal blog? Even in a business setting full of a wide range of tones and styles, blogs are fundamentally a point of personal connection with our customers. I blog to build trust in my skillset as a writer and editor, and to give current and potential clients a sense of how and what I produce as a writer. The AI’s advice to rewrite what I’ve done as a bland, repetitive five paragraph essay invalidates the premise of my blog: NO ONE wants to spend their precious internet seconds reading the same template over and over again.
Something Polished 