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AI can write emails. AI can write songs. AI can make suggestions for improving the text that go beyond spelling and grammar and also relate to word choice.
As major tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple roll out their latest AI features, one use case of AI keeps popping up: AI can write. Sometimes it's so good that job seekers have asked it to write their resumes and cover letters, and new technologies have been introduced to detect AI's presence.
Related: These 4 words make it obvious you used AI to write a paper, according to a new study
Easier writing is a key selling point for Apple's AI, Apple Intelligence, included in the new iPhone 16, which launched on Monday. Apple Intelligence is “built into your iPhone, iPad, and Mac to help you write, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly,” the product page says.
Apple said the AI could help users of the upcoming iPhone 16 compose emails and text messages.
iPhone 16. Image credit: Apple
Apple is not the first to focus on writing as a use case for artificial intelligence: Google ran an ad at the Olympics last month about how its artificial intelligence could write a fan letter from a child to their Olympic hero – sparking a discussion about what would happen if the Olympian held a stack of identical-sounding fan letters in his hands.
“As more and more people rely on AI to generate their content, it's easy to imagine a future in which the richness of human language and culture erodes,” wrote Shelly Palmer, professor of advanced media at Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School of Public Communications, in a July 28 blog post.
Although Google eventually pulled the ad after public protests, the future depicted in the ad—where young people turn to ChatGPT instead of figuring out how to say something themselves—is quickly becoming a reality.
ChatGPT has over 200 million weekly users, over 60% of whom are under 34 years old. Almost one in three users is under 24 years old.
Related: Can ChatGPT help you start a business? To find out, I tried the latest version, GPT-4o.
Research published earlier this year shows that university students who use ChatGPT have poorer academic performance and memory loss. A separate study found that ChatGPT is primarily used for creating content, responding to emails, writing cover letters and resumes, and developing ideas.
Opponents of AI point out that AI's writing capabilities may be based on copyrighted works used by major technology companies without credit or compensation given to the authors of those works.
“To make matters worse, the bot is trained on pirated copies of my books,” author Margaret Atwood wrote last year in a 2023 article for The Atlantic on the subject. “Really! How cheap is that? Would it kill these companies to shell out the paltry price of 33 books? They intend to make a lot of money off the beings they raised and fattened on my words so they can at least buy me a coffee.”
AI advocates say the anti-AI group is “classist and anti-disability.” For example, the organization behind National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) defended AI writing last week, saying that “not all brains [the] the same skills” and some need “outside help or support” to be able to write. Disabled writers and NaNoWriMo sponsors criticized the comments and the organization has since changed its stance and apologized.
Related: Klarna CEO says AI could help reduce company's headcount by 50%
There are also more neutral aspects of AI, such as estimates that AI systems could run out of free training data within the next two years, leaving open the question of what types of data to use next.
AI-generated content has steadily risen to the top of Google searches, doubling from about 7% in June 2023 to 14% in June 2024.
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