Writing is the least important part of writing |
Last week, a panel at the University of Sydney’s Sydney Policy Lab debated AI. Some of the panellists make their living from teaching about writing. They promoted the craft, and they defended it well.
They were defending the wrong part of the job.
An article, a board paper, and a crisis statement are each built in four stages.
Thinking comes first: the high-level idea of what you’re trying to say and why. Research follows developing the concept, then the writing of the first draft. Then comes the polish, which takes judgement and experience.
AI is coming for that first draft.
The author Peter Wilkinson
In 2023, two MIT economics researchers gave 453 college-educated professionals a set of workplace writing tasks and gave half of them ChatGPT. The AI group took 40 per cent less time, and assessors rated their work 18 per cent higher. That was three years and several model generations ago.
The writing is becoming the cheapest part of the work. The thinking, and the judgment that decides what survives the polish, are becoming the most valuable.
I think this is a fundamental shift for everyone in the written communications business.
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