Is this blog written by AI?

The Navajos believe that only God is perfect and that humans cannot achieve the same perfect level. So they make sure to leave a little imperfection in anything they create. Usually, one has to look very close to find the imperfection, so it does not detract from the beauty of the item. It might be a loose piece of yarn, or a different colored bead. Amusing Planet

I sincerely doubt that any rational reader suspects anything I have written, especially my blog posts, was written by anything but a fallible human being. This can also be said of all the writers of books, blogs, and magazine articles. And especially newspaper opinion pieces. Why?

Perhaps I flatter myself but my writing contains one or more of the following characteristics, unlike what I would expect from ChatGPT, Bing, or other machine-based composition tools:

1. Errors. While unlike the Navajo weavers in the opening quote of this post, my errors are never intentional. But I don’t believe I have ever reread something I’ve written without wanting to make a correction. Spelling errors, cliches, non sequiturs, or just plain awkwardness haunt even this old English teacher’s work. Writing cannot be perfected, only made better.

2. Humor - usually self-deprecating. You can’t capture a person’s brain until you’ve in some way connected with their heart. In both speaking and writing, humor lights up the emotive response channel in the audience. Sad stories would do it as well, but that’s just not me. 

3. Personal experience. The professional writing I have done was based on problems and solutions to them that I had experienced first hand as a teacher, librarian, and technology director. I used little research and no formal experimentation. The thought of ever having to write a PhD thesis sends shivers up my spine. 

4. Compassion/empathy. Perhaps I’ve watched too many dystopian films in which the AI embodiment is out to wipe out humanity, so I find it difficult to think that HAL or The Terminator or even R2D2 would be able to identify with human joy, misery, or need. As far as I can tell only other human beings and dogs can feel for others.

5. Purpose. My writing has never been done to complete a school assignment. At least not for a hell of a long time. I write to amuse (myself primarily). I write to clarify my own thinking. I write to share solutions to problems that may be helpful to others. I write so I remember my challenges, my travels, my experiences with my friends and family. Sorry college professors, I don’t write for you. I’ll let ChatGPT do that for me.

A lot of fuss has been stirred up about AI writing/research tools’ impact on education. It’s a tempest in a teapot. If you are assigning writing that can be written by a computer program, you are making the wrong assignments. 

And students, write so that your own uniqueness shines through. Even if it means dropping a stitch now and again.

Comments

[Kenn Gorman]

I have been asking students to add their own personal touch to their programming assignments for many years - since most of them would be happy to just copy my sample code character for character.

I really like your list and will incorporate it into my lessons - I wonder how students will respond to "make your code a little funny."

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Kenn,

Oh, I hope all teachers ask for some degree of originality in all assignments! Even coding.

Doug