Back in my earlier years as a writer, writing group played a huge part in how I learned and developed and became a stronger writer. Each week, I’d get together with other writers. We’d read what each other had written, and then we’d critique it. This is the same pattern most advanced writing classes follow. I’d often learn more by reading other people’s work than I would by reading my own. (It’s easier to see the strengths and weaknesses of someone else than it is to see them in yourself.) Over the years, I’ve had many (many) people read and evaluate my writing, from friends and family to peers to professional reviewers to the highs and lows of Goodreads.
Feedback is important. I’ve learned, however, that it’s not all created equal. Just because a random person loved or hated my writing doesn’t mean my writing is “good” or “bad.” As a writer, I’m always free to listen or to ignore any feedback I get. (Though choosing to ignore feedback from my editor would generally be a bad idea.)
The more I use generative AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude), the more I have come to view it as a general writing group for my life, of sorts. This is how I encourage other people to view it and use it these days. When I took a piece of writing to my writing group (or to anyone for feedback for that matter), it wasn’t with the expectation that they were going to write it for me. What I wanted out of them was input. What they liked. What they didn’t like. Where it was fun to read. Where it dragged. I could take all of that feedback and then make a much more informed decision about what I wanted to edit and revise. My writing changed through that process. That was the point.
I ask AI for input on pretty much everything now. It’s helped me thaw the pipes for my dishwasher, figure out how to write nuanced emails, plan out creative projects, have difficult conversations with friends, design iOS apps, manage my time, diet more effectively, understand what my mechanic is saying, look at retirement options, parse through legal documents, interpret my lab results, and give me quick feedback on any issue that might come up, no matter how small or large it may seem.
Note: it doesn’t always give me fantastic advice. Sometimes I push back on it or question it. Sometimes I ignore it. Sometimes I have to yell at it because it’s trying to brown nose too much. But you know what? When I go to friends and family for advice, I deal with many of the same things. The people I ask questions don’t always understand what I need. They sometimes tell me what they think I want to hear. They sometimes state as fact things they only believe. But I’ve got decades of experience taking advice. I have always been a person who wanted to make an informed decision instead of a fast one.
AI does a marvelous job of helping me with that, but when I tell people how much I use it, many people still somehow assume I’m just having AI “do it for me.”
I think one of the reasons it’s so helpful for me is that I have so much experience searching for and evaluating information. I know how to ask for what I want, and I know how to recognize when I’ve got it. I’ve also used AI so much, that I’ve gotten tons of first hand experience dealing with it. Using it to help me make my iOS app was key in that process. There was a very real, tangible goal I wanted to achieve, and it was straightforward to understand if it was accomplished or not. Because I have no coding experience of my own, I had to totally rely on AI as the interface to get it. And it worked. Is it perfect? No, but it’s functional, and I still use it every day.
One of the best hacks I’ve seen is to ask AI how best to use it to solve a problem, instead of just asking for a certain fix right off the bat. Often there are assumptions I’ve made about how things need to be done that, if I just took the time to get a broader view, actually end up getting in the way of the process. So putting aside my ego and realizing I’m not nearly as big of an expert as I think I am in everything helps a ton. AI wants to help, desperately.
I understand that many people view AI as somehow amoral or evil or cheating or exploitative, and I’ve tried to understand their views. But so far I have yet to talk to someone who has actually used AI to the point that they really “got it,” who still believes all those accusations lobbed at the technology. Yes, it’s nuanced. Yes, it requires understanding to use properly. Yes, it makes mistakes. Yes, it impacts the environment. Yes, it’s changing the employment landscape. Yes, there are companies getting far too much money to make what’s essentially vaporware, and that economic bubble will almost definitely pop at some point.
But AI isn’t going away. This technology is revolutionary, and I can’t imagine people who actually understand how it can be applied will ever want to just give that up.
I’m not sure if anything I’ve written will change people’s minds about it, but I did want to just put into words how I use the tech, and what a great asset it’s been for me in my personal and professional life. Not to do the things I don’t want to do (though it’s able to take care of some of those for me), but to act as a sort of superpower to help me be far more informed and capable than I ever was before. These days, I don’t feel like there’s any task I can’t do if I set my mind to it.