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As at six years ago, there were little or nothing like generative AI, either for art or for writing. What we knew then were some paraphrasing tools and some writing assistants like Grammarly and Quilbot. These tools were mostly used for Grammarly checkers and sentence enhancement. I used grammarly mostly back then, but today, even Grammarly and Quilbot have been classified as AI tools because their algorithms have been upgraded to meet the present day AI requirements.
Even in art creation for web 3 NFT, we have seen how AI has proliferated the field and killed the beauty of art creation. Although, the generative AI itself is not the problem - for it has helped genuine artists in fine toning their artworks - every Jack and Harry took advantage of the simplicity of art generative AI, and thus degraded the NFT market. Let's not go too deep into this, as it's a matter for another day.
What we Should be Concerned About
Today, we all get excited about the latest innovations in the development of artificial intelligence AI. That's not unusual, there's no one who doesn't love productivity boost. However, what we should be most concerned about is not even the use of the generative AI for content writing, but the 'degenerative I'. You heard that right!
The problem with the reliance on AI for content writing is not with the AI itself, but with the person who solely relies on AI generated content for his or her work. Too much reliance on the use of generative AI gradually leads to degeneration of human skills at work.
Take this for example, if I let Chatgpt do all my writing tasks or Alexa plan my daily schedule without my input, am I really growing as a person? The answer is an emphatic NO! Leaving all my daily tasks in the hands of artificial intelligence AI pushes me into degeneration.
Nowadays, we find ourselves easily caught up chasing the next tool that makes it easier for us to do our work that we forget to nourish the human qualities that make us unique. Technology is not meant to replace us but to enhance us. As long as we find a perfect balance between the two worlds, we can reap the benefits of artificial intelligence AI without degenerating in the process.
Don't get me wrong on that, it's pretty great seeing how AI technology is evolving and shaping our reasoning. But, like they say - everything requires moderation. In that sense, I think creating balance is what we needed. Using AI tools for your content in bits here and there is fine in my opinion. As long as the AI tools are not the ones generating the context of the article it shouldn't be an offense in writing business.
Use of AI in Content Writing
Without missing words, almost every content writer today uses AI tools in their content creation in one way or the other. AI is helping a lot of writers avoid writer's block these days. Some use AI to plan their entire monthly or yearly writing prompts. AI can also help to brainstorm ideas, creating catchy headings and outlines for a blog post. AI is also a great tool for research and image generation for blog posts. All these make the writing process easier for today's writers. But there's a limit we must keep while enjoying the assistance AI can render.
No one talks about plagiarism as much these days, the focus is whether a piece of content in AI generated or human. It's logical to say people wouldn't plagiarize intentionally these days since AI makes writing easier like flipping a finger, hence the invention of AI for writing assistants pushed some lazy people away from engaging in plagiarism. Nonetheless, plagiarism is still a thing to be vigilant about.
Should AI Generated Content be Monetized?
This is a crucial question we all need to look into critically. First off, how do we identify a piece of content as being generated by AI? In my experience as a writer, I have observed the behavior of popular AI detector tools available online. Their results are not always consistent. It can go either way. AI generated content can turn out to be human written, or a fully human written content can turn out containing AI generated text.
I had an experience about this. In my earliest moments on Hive, I was using a Grammarly typing keyboard board on my phone, which can suggest writing mistakes and grammar choices for you as you write along. In one of my posts, I allowed it to work freely, correcting my writing mistakes and making grammar choices for me. After publishing the post, a moderator called to my attention that AI content was found in it, up to 29%. I was shocked when that was brought to my attention. How did AI generated content get in my post? Then it dawned on me that the excessive use of Grammarly suggestive features turned my writing into AI generated text. Since that day, I stopped using Grammarly typing, and rely on Google keyboard and doc for my writing tasks. This means that AI detectors are not hundred percent reliable for identifying AI generated pieces of writing.
Some said it's not difficult to know if a particular piece of content is AI generated or not. Reading the content could sound as AI generated. But how does AI actually sound? This is a question I have pondered several times. Do I sound like AI in my writing? To put it more simply, does this piece you are reading sound like AI?
I think the use of sound to judge if a particular piece of content is AI generated is not totally correct. People developed their writing skills based on the type of content they consume or are exposed to. Some are very professional in their writing approach. It's hard for such people to lower the standard even when they join a community such as we have on Hive.
Now, to answer the question; should AI generated content be Monetized? Here is my take on it!
If we are sure a particular piece of content is AI generated, my answer is an emphatic NO! AI generated content should not be monetized and never should be. But, there is something else to look into. What about content that has a lower AI score on detection tools, or that we think sounds like AI? should the writer be left in limbo without knowing why their content was not considered for monetization?
I think there should be fair play here. Moderators can inform the writer in a reply about the nature of their content. Through interaction correction can be made by the writer, and even if the particular content was not rewarded, the writer would be grateful for helping out on where they need to improve on their content creation.
In conclusion, finding a good balance with the use of generative AI should be the key. Just because AI is revolutionizing our lives doesn't mean we should drop what we have learned over the years and start depending on them. We should always ask ourselves - is the use of AI really helping me as they claimed, will it make me more efficient, or am I just trading my real job skills for fake attention and rewards?
At the end, the major concern would not be the use of generative AI, but how degenerating it can turn those who relied on it hundred percent for their jobs.
Those are just my two cents on this matter!
Thanks for reading.
This a submission for today's prompt in the #juneinleo daily writing challenge.