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The promise of AI

· 4 min read
Liz Argall
Liz Argall
Technical Writer and Program Manager

Back in 2018 I gave a presentation at Content Connections, titled Governance in Content: Draconian Overlord or Supportive Coach. This was back in an era when most folks didn't really think about AI.

Part of the question I wrestled with was, what is AI? What is intelligence? I went with John McCarthy's definition, "Intelligence is the computational ability to achieve goals in the world." Technically this means that a thermostat has intelligence, but its intelligence is somewhat limited.

The heart of my argument, however, is that AI had the ability to take care of boring, repetitive, "CLEAN YOUR ROOM!" mum stuff for content creators. Through this collaboration, technical writers, editors, managers could spend more time coaching and working with people to make great content.

In the current AI conversations I see a lot of emphasis on the frantic. It's about optimizing for speed in a sort of rushing tube or assembly line or maybe down some rapids. Look at how quickly content can be crammed through.

Astronauts love to say "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast." I think where AI can be powerful isn't making more and more efficient tubes. It's about creating the space for the conversations so that what goes into the tube is higher quality so we don’t have quite so much churn

For too long, in too many places, technical writers are seen as something that comes in at the end of the process. We polish things as best can be, make things compliant and out it goes. We are so much more than that, but we often don't have the time as we scramble to keep up with deadlines. Deadlines that can be imperilled by poor quality content that requires more revision and review.

AI, when it is used well, should be for creating better conversations. Creating space and context for coaching and collaboration. AI can make things less personal. In the Content Connections talk I reference another person's experience where his writers didn't listen to his advice on a certain topic. But when Acrolinx gave them exactly the same note they immediately implemented it.

With AI as a coach it can be easier to create documentation that informs, educates and empowers people to collaborate with me more effectively. There's so much documentation I want to create, but regardless of good intentions I never have the time.

If we just focus AI efforts on speed, we neglect the power of the quiet. The power of taking time to work with someone and coach them. To discuss issues and empower them to make stronger content. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast... but who has the time?

I feel like the best use of AI is when we can find the time, go for richer connections, deeper thoughts and have time to test our assumptions. Rather than, how can we use AI to go faster as an arbitrary value, we should be saying, "How can we use AI to give us the time to make work more meaningful, effective, inclusive and nuanced?"

In the long term, that is what will be most sustaining and have the most effective velocity.

Media I'm enjoying​

A little bit of fun from XKCD XKCD comic

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