Comment by ijidak

15 hours ago

I disagree with the advice to avoid having an LLM write a first draft and then editing it yourself.

To me, for most business and academic content, the ultimate goal is to convey information. If I can edit AI copy to legibly convey that information clearly, that's enough and I can move on.

The saying, "Don't allow perfection to be the enemy of the good," comes to mind.

And I'm not convinced an individual can accurately edit without learning just as much as if they wrote the content. I guess the question is: how hard does the person work at editing. And does the individual challenge themselves to not put out content they themselves don't understand.

We're in a transition period. And as in all transition periods, many recoil at what is new. LLM writing still feels strange. And it's understandable.

But, for better or worse, in a business and academic setting, as the years go by, most of us will shrug and move on.

As with any topic, there will always be a minority of fanatics who cling to the rejection of AI writing in all its forms. Just as some prefer Vegan leather or tabs over spaces.

But among those who get things done, most (though not all) will accept that it's not worth it to exclude AI from writing. There simply isn't sufficient ROI.

It's like trying to bring back low-end highly human employed manufacturing to wealthy industrialized nations.

That ship has sailed.

I do agree, however, that in cases where an individual is reading for pleasure -- e.g. not in a business or academic context, authors will be forced to pick their audience: those who enjoy writing, even if it smells of AI, and those who don't.

I guess to summarize, my feeling is that using LLMs to write is perfectly acceptable, and used well you'll likely learn just as much. But you must be willing to lose some of your audience. And, over time you'll lose less and less of that audience.