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In the last few weeks, I've seen pieces of personal communication, including application documents, that show telltale signs of being AI-generated. Credibility immediately plummets when this happens, and I find myself searching for the "real" person behind the robot-like facade. It usually sounds quite proper, but I'm left feeling uncertain of the validity and genuineness of what is shared.

There is just something a bit unsettling about it.

Come to think of it, it's much like seeing the telltale signs of a job description having been pasted into the "description of duties" section of a job application. It's choke full of words but completely void of personality - and credibility.

Just to be clear - I'm all for using AI, but I believe the benefits come from using it to augment our own work, not to replace it. When it comes to writing, instead of outsourcing to AI, we do better when we use it as our assistant.

This is what that might look like:

• Dictate or type your thoughts into the AI tool without worrying about structure, grammar, and so on, and then ask it to extract the main points of your "brain dump" - for you to further sort and refine.
• Let AI create an outline and write a first draft - for you to edit, personalize and finalize.
• Ask AI to analyze your work and give suggestions - for you to decide what suggestions, if any, you want to incorporate or be inspired by.

AI can help us do better, but there are pitfalls. We have to be the brain behind the work and the boss who delegates, takes ownership, makes final decisions and ensures it's our voice that's heard in the end.

Agreed?

Wishing you rapidly evolving mastery of AI augmentation!