The first time I took ChatGPT for a test drive, my teenage son walked behind me and said, “You using ChatGPT, Mom?”

“You know about ChatGPT?”

“Everyone knows about ChatGPT.”

It was then I realized that something big — really big — was on the horizon. And as a writer, I was nervous! But I shouldn’t have been. And neither should you. (Yet!)

ChatGPT is a tool to generate ideas, provide writing assistance, and consolidate research. It really can save you time! But it won’t replace your personal point of view, tone, or voice. (Yet!)

My favorite approach is writing my piece first and running it through ChatGPT to prove I’m better. It’s my personal human v. machine competition that makes me feel valuable — indispensable even! (For now.)

And the truth is, my stuff (usually) wins! However, I often nick an AI phrase or word for the piece to keep it fresh so I don’t overuse my go-to words.

ChatGPT is also helpful for churning out those important (nagging) pieces that don’t require much personal touch, like content summaries or standard acknowledgments.

But even with the smaller projects, you must add your own flair.

Because one thing I’ve noticed is — ChatGPT has its own voice. It’s mechanical and mediocre and reminds me of some sort of corporate SOP. (You know what I mean.)

So, embrace the advantages of ChatGPT, but be aware of the many faults. Your voice, your experience, your creativity, your point of view, and, yes, your heart for the causes you care about cannot be replicated. (Yet!)

The problem’s plain to see:

Too much technology

Machines to save our lives

Machines dehumanize

“Mr. Roboto” by Styx

For fun, I asked ChatGPT to write a blog about Chat GPT for writers. The unedited response is below!

As a writer, you’re always looking for ways to improve your craft and reach your audience more effectively. One tool that’s quickly gaining popularity in the writing community is ChatGPT.

As a large language model developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT can assist writers in a variety of ways. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the ways ChatGPT can help you improve your writing.

What is ChatGPT?

Before we dive into how ChatGPT can help writers, let’s take a moment to explain what it is. ChatGPT is a large language model developed by OpenAI. It’s part of a new generation of language models that are capable of understanding and generating human-like text. ChatGPT is based on the GPT-3.5 architecture and was trained on a massive dataset of text from the internet.

How can ChatGPT help writers?

Idea generation

One of the biggest challenges for writers is coming up with new and interesting ideas for their writing projects. ChatGPT can help with this by generating a wide variety of prompts and topics. You can input a general topic, such as “romance,” and ChatGPT will generate a list of specific prompts, such as “a love story set in space” or “a romance between two rival chefs.”

Writing assistance

ChatGPT can also assist you with the actual writing process. You can input a partial sentence or paragraph and ask ChatGPT to complete it for you. This can be especially helpful if you’re struggling with writer’s block or if you just need a little inspiration to keep your writing flowing.

Grammar and syntax checking

Another way ChatGPT can help writers is by checking your grammar and syntax. You can input a sentence or paragraph, and ChatGPT will analyze it for errors and suggest corrections. This can be especially helpful if you’re a non-native speaker of English or if you struggle with grammar and syntax in general.

Content optimization

Finally, ChatGPT can help writers optimize their content for SEO (search engine optimization). You can input a draft of an article or blog post, and ChatGPT will analyze it for keywords and suggest ways to optimize it for search engines. This can help you reach a wider audience and improve your online visibility.

Conclusion

As you can see, ChatGPT can be an incredibly helpful tool for writers. Whether you need help generating ideas, completing sentences, checking your grammar, or optimizing your content, ChatGPT can assist you in a variety of ways. So why not give it a try and see how it can help you improve your writing?