The tasks I delegate to AI are very different from what I thought they’d be.
When I first started using AI for writing, I thought I’d brainstorm outlines of thoughts then use AI to edit into a finished essay.
However I find myself often doing the reverse: Using AI as a thinking assistant to get a broad outline and write a rough draft, then doing final editing myself.
I think this is consistent with how people delegate to other people.
Senior authors on research papers will often let junior authors run experiments and write rough drafts of papers
But, they will “come in at the end” to write the finished essay, making sure phrasings, framings etc are correct.
I suspect this comes down to matters of subtle taste.
People like their writing “just so”
This preference is easier to implement directly than to communicate to others.
C.f. craftsmanship is highly personal.
I.e. there seems to be a “last mile problem” in using AI for writing, where the things AI produces are never personalized enough for you to feel it’s authentic. This last mile problem seems hard to solve.
The tasks I delegate to AI are very different from what I thought they’d be.
When I first started using AI for writing, I thought I’d brainstorm outlines of thoughts then use AI to edit into a finished essay.
However I find myself often doing the reverse: Using AI as a thinking assistant to get a broad outline and write a rough draft, then doing final editing myself.
I think this is consistent with how people delegate to other people.
Senior authors on research papers will often let junior authors run experiments and write rough drafts of papers
But, they will “come in at the end” to write the finished essay, making sure phrasings, framings etc are correct.
I suspect this comes down to matters of subtle taste.
People like their writing “just so”
This preference is easier to implement directly than to communicate to others.
C.f. craftsmanship is highly personal.
I.e. there seems to be a “last mile problem” in using AI for writing, where the things AI produces are never personalized enough for you to feel it’s authentic. This last mile problem seems hard to solve.