When innovation happens in our chosen field, we can either learn new skills and adapt, or we can resist and eventually make ourselves unhireable.
Consider how barber-surgeons used to treat patients with bloodletting until medical technology got a little better for us. Now, surgeons who learned how to perform procedures with their own hands are using robot-assisted technology— enabling them to perform complex procedures more safely and with more precision. This means better outcomes for the patients and more lives saved.
Would you turn your nose down at talented surgeons who use bots to help them do their jobs better?
But let’s focus on writing, which is a different game. What writers do can be seen as art, entertainment, or a tool to deliver communication, information, and education.
With the latest developments in AI writing tools, it’s not just the vehicle for getting our writing out there that’s changing. It’s the methods of creation, too. For writers, new tech can be a great friend. It can also be our enemy.
It just depends on what you do with it.
Writers have strong feelings about the great AI debate. Should we use AI to write boring, impersonal, unoriginal blog posts for (attempted) monetary gain? Should we use it as a helpful tool to assist our work? Or should we scorn other writers who utilize AI as being posers with no artistic dignity?
Wherever you fall, one thing is certain for professional writers: If you want to stay on top of your ever-changing field, you need to learn the new technology and how best to use it.
We shouldn’t hide our heads in the sand and ignore AI writing tools. Not if we want to keep working and supporting ourselves and our families.
That’s why I recently applied for a contract gig as an AI content writer. And, after being invited to take their writing test, I’ve been hired. I’m currently onboarding for a six-month gig with a large tech firm, and it pays more than my previous corporate writing job.
