A.I. Bots Can’t Report This Column. But They Can Improve It.

Test 3: Adding Context

Wordtune Spices also excelled at fleshing out paragraphs with additional context. By pressing the + button, you can add color and background information to a piece of text by inserting historical data, a joke and an example to prove your point.

For example, I took this paragraph from my column last week:

First, it helps to know why companies want email addresses. To advertisers, web publishers and app makers, your email is important not just for contacting you. It acts as a digital bread crumb for companies to link your activity across sites and apps to serve you relevant ads.

In Wordtune Spices, I clicked the + button to add an example, a historical fact and a joke. (Changes in bold.)

First, it helps to know why companies want email addresses. To advertisers, web publishers and app makers, your email is important not just for contacting you. For example, by tracking your purchases, companies can recommend products or services that are relevant to you. The first email marketing blast was sent in 1978 by a man named Gary Thuerk who worked for Digital Equipment Corp. And with that, Gary Thuerk was sent down in history as the world’s first ‘Spam’ Lord!

After doing some research, I was impressed to learn that 1978 was indeed when email was first used for marketing. The example of using email receipts to serve targeted ads was also accurate. The joke wasn’t very funny, but it lightened things up.

Test 4: Ending This Column

Last, I pasted this entire column into each writing assistant to see if it could come up with a kicker, or a clever conclusion to wrap this all up.

ChatGPT was the only one of the three that was able to read the entire text to generate a plausible conclusion:

With A.I. writing assistants like ChatGPT, Wordtune Spices, and Rytr, we have a powerful tool to enhance our writing – but only if we use it responsibly.

Wordtune Spices produced an unusable takeaway:

With the help of writing assistants, I was able to finish this column with a well-crafted conclusion that ties together all the points I have discussed.

Rytr did, um, something:

Coaches in the National Football League earn an average of $2,000,000 annually.

AI21 Labs, the Israeli start-up that developed Wordtune Spices, said current A.I. writing technology required more guidance from the user than the prompt I had given the tools. Rytr said its users could use a feedback tool to train its A.I. in the event that something went wrong. OpenAI declined to comment.

All this shows that artificial intelligence can be an effective tool for improving our work. I was surprised by some of the results — in particular, that Wordtune Spices could add accurate and relevant background information. I may occasionally use the tool for suggestions on fleshing out paragraphs with some historical data, though I will then check the facts before publishing them.

And in general, the A.I. bots were useful for sharpening prose and cleaning up clunky, ungrammatical sentences.

What the bots couldn’t do, however, was the research or reporting to show their strengths and weaknesses. That requires thought.