My AI Promise to You

The subtitle above succinctly sums up the point of this Chasing Threads column.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a bigger part of all of our lives. And we use AI-based apps and tools — personally and professionally — sometimes without even recognizing that AI is involved.

Perhaps the biggest way I’ve used AI as part of my job is for transcribing recorded interviews. This can cut the time it takes for me to go from interview notes to completed article. But typically, there’s still a bunch of cleaning-up I have to do to the transcription, especially given our precision machining industry’s technical jargon. (I’ve come across some terribly inappropriate voice-to-text transcriptions that while hilarious will not be mentioned here.) So, there can be some time savings, but there are also times in which I have to go back to the recording to determine what the person was actually saying.

That’s really the extent of it. I’ve never used a tool such as ChatGPT to help generate material for my articles, come up with clever headlines and so on. And never will. In fact, I’ve never engaged with ChatGPT in any way.

This doesn’t make me a Luddite. In terms of our industry, I’m all about shops applying technology to automate, speed and simplify machining processes. Still, if anyone now is envisioning me as the old guy in the meme shaking his fist at the clouds, so be it.

If I don’t have the chops to be an effective writer, I should be doing something else. I have too much pride in my writing ability to — yes, cheat — using something such as ChatGPT to help create an article. In addition, I’ve been told by some readers that they can hear my voice while reading my articles. (Okay, one such person is my mom, but there are others.) So, that would be lost if I used AI to generate “my” content.

Plus, there’s an extent to which it’s personal between me and AI in terms of content generation. It’s conceivable AI has been used to steal from my 20+ years of original writing about machining and manufacturing, enabling others to “create” their own material.

Know that our company, Gardner Business Media, is in the process of establishing guidelines outlining how employees can use AI as part of their jobs. There are some ways it can help. Consider those in departments such as sales, accounting, human resources and audience development. They have talents in areas that I don’t. So, AI could be helpful composing emails, surveys, questionnaires, procedural documentation and so on.

I think of it like this. If singing (which I’m not good at) was a small yet necessary part of my job, I’d totally look to something like autotune to alter my voice to sound better.

I applaud the company for trying to get in front of this and being transparent about how and when AI may be used. While the guidelines have yet to be completed, one stipulation is that GBM writers are not to use AI to create original content for the company’s brands. As you likely surmise, that’d be my personal policy anyway.

One advantage that I and other GBM writers have is the ability to visit machine shops and manufacturers to generate our original content — content that could not be replicated by scraping material from existing online articles. But what if others continue to use AI to create articles to the extent that media companies such as ours can’t compete? That is, I can’t go to shops to create original content. At that point, who is feeding new, original content to the AI beast?

AI will increasingly be used to expedite processes for machining and manufacturing businesses, one example being to help automatically create CAM part programs. In fact, our October issue will have a focus on that technology and how it can be/is being applied in our industry. But for me, it will not be a tool I use to create original content highlighting new precision-machining and manufacturing ideas, technology and concepts.

If you agree with my stance here, great. If not, get off my lawn. Ha.