Education: Age of the Hybrid Writer Beckons

Given that students already have easy access to AI writing tools, it may be time to legitimize the tech’s use in the classroom, according to Lucinda McKnight.

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McKnight is a senior lecturer in Pedagogy and Curriculum at Deakin University.

Observes McNight: “Many student writers are already using AI writing tools.

“Perhaps, rather than banning or seeking to expose machine collaboration, it should be welcomed as ‘co-creativity.'”

Indeed, professional writers who have mastered one or more AI writing tools are generally seen as more valuable by employers.

Observes McKnight: “AI writers work lightning fast. They can write in multiple languages and can provide images, create metadata, headlines, landing pages, Instagram ads, content ideas, expansions of bullet points and search-engine optimized text — all in seconds.

“Students need to exploit these machine capabilities, as writers for digital platforms and audiences.

“Perhaps assessment should focus more on students’ capacities to use these tools skillfully instead of — or at least in addition to — pursuing ‘pure’ human writing.”

Of course, the question is, once AI writing tools are broadly accepted in classroom, how — as a practical matter — can original writing be taught?

In other AI-generated writing news:

*GPT-3-Driven Writing Assistants: A 2021 Guide: TechPP has put together a handy guide on GPT-3 powered apps you can use for specific writing tasks.

One of the world’s most powerful auto-text generators, GPT-3 emerged last summer to widespread critical acclaim.

Specifically, TechPP likes GPT-3 powered ShortlyAI for creating long-form content and Nichess as one of the genre’s best bargains at $59-for-life.

If landing pages are your thing, you can’t go wrong with Writesonic, according to TechPP.

And Copy.AI looks like the best bet for marketers, according to TechPP.

Other GPT-3 driven tools TechPP takes a look at are Conversation.ai, CrawlQ AI, Content Villian, Copysmith, GoCopy, ContentBot and Snazzy AI.

(For an in-depth look at GPT-3, check out: “GPT-3 and AI Writing: Stunning, if Imperfect,” by Joe Dysart.)

*China’s Answer to GPT-3: Add China to the growing list of competitors joining the race against GPT-3.

It’s crown jewel, Wu Dao – Wen Yuan, boasts 2.6 billion parameters.

While modest in comparison to the 175 billion parameters that help run GPT-3, Wu Dao nevertheless puts China on the map as a potential, future contender in powerful auto-text generation.

China’s announcement comes on the heels of the release of GPT-Neo, a free-to-use GPT-3 competitor developed by an independent group of AI developers.

GPT-Neo is somewhat less powerful than GPT-3, but still gives the formidable tech a good run for its money, according to Will Knight, a writer for Wired.

*Should AI-Generated Opinion Be Identified?: As AI developers ready new tools that can auto-generate opinion pieces and similar, Nature magazine is calling for AI-generated opinion to be clearly labeled.

Equally important: ensuring that the person or organization behind the auto-text generator is also clearly identified – and held responsible for what the machine is generating, Nature adds.

One reason driving the need for close monitoring, according to Nature?

Given that auto-text generators like GPT-3 are trained on data created by humans, they unfortunately can end up mimicking and repeating human biases, such as racism and sexism.

And once such a torrent of hate starts flowing freely, it’s a short leap for the tech to begin spewing racist and sexist posts across the digital world.

Yet another threat: It’s also “possible that a computer might one day create persuasive language with stronger oratorical ability and recourse to emotive appeals — both of which are known to be more effective than facts and logic in gaining attention and winning converts — especially for false claims,” according to Nature.

*New AI Tool Optimizes Writing in Real-Time: AI-generated writing firm Phrasee has released a new AI writer – Phrasee X – designed to enable marketers to optimize automated writing in real-time.

Specifically, Phrasee X uses “advanced machine learning techniques to optimize brand language in real-time — at the click of a single button,” according to a Phrasee press release.

The company also designed the tool to seamlessly integrate with software from Adobe, Salesforce and similar tools.

Phrasee’s AI has been used by marketers for a number of years now to auto-generate subject heads for marketing emails, ad slogans and similar short advertising copy.

*Overview: Top AI Tools for Journalists in 2021: AI company Connexun has put together a nice overview of AI tools custom-tailored for journalists.

Not surprisingly, its own tool – Connexun news api – tops the list.

But there are also a number of other software programs featured that have helped shape the merging of AI and journalism during the past few years, including tools from Narrative Science, Automated Insights and Wordsmith.

Bottom line: This a useful article for a quick study of the most influential AI tools currently embraced by journalists and news outlets.

*AI Poetry Writing Software: Now With Some Chops: A group of poets say they’ve trained AI software to come-up with poetry that at times, borders on the clever.

Specifically, they fed the software poetry created by more than 100 contemporary British poets — and then worked with the machine over a five-month period to improve its output.

The result: “It certainly was a lot more nonsense language to start with — but it did get better,” says Tracey Guiry, director, Poetry Archive.

Guiry adds: “The AI would produce something that made you think.

“It wouldn’t produce or reproduce what a human would write — because that’s an incredibly subjective response, the lived experience was perhaps not there.

“But certainly, it would produce two lines that would then cause a human to think on more things.”

*Wordtune: Under-the-Hood: Eric Curts, a specialist in educational technology, offers an in-depth look at AI writing aid Wordtune in this piece.

The tech is a free Chrome extension, which uses AI to suggest alternate ways to phrase your writing.

Essentially, this a great hands-on piece, which takes you on a step-by-step journey on how to start using Wordtune – and how to get the most from the software.

Adds Curts: “This is not a sponsored post. I am just very impressed with the artificial intelligence capabilities of this extension, and am excited to see how students may benefit from this when writing.”

*Summary Report Released on AI Journalism Conference: The Artificial Intelligence Journalism World Forum has released a summary report on its conference in March.

The virtual meeting — streamed from Dubai — featured more than 50 researchers and academics, according to conference organizers.

The forum also doled-out a few awards, including The Best Innovation Award in Artificial Intelligence Journalism.

That accolade recognized American Second Insight’s collaboration with the Artificial Intelligence Journalism Foundation.

Their tool uses AI to create Arabic content, analyze data and reproduce visual and audio reports.

Meanwhile, the AIJWF came up with a few recommendations for its members, including:

~Setting a goal for integrating AI journalism into college curriculums

~Working towards launching an AI-in-journalism training program for academics at Arab universities

~Helping forge an ethical guide on the use of AI in journalism

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*New Google App Offers Intelligent Document Processing: Google has released a new AI-powered app that includes Intelligent Document Processing.

The software, dubbed AppSheet Automation, can be programmed to automatically extract text from unstructured files like invoices and W-9s.

Overall, Google is billing the app – which requires no coding – as a platform companies can use to automate a number of existing business processes.

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Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.

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