AI Isn’t Going to Bleed on the Paper

Posted on by Wynne Leon

The other day Miss O, my nine-year-old daughter, wanted to compose an essay called BME: The Best Mom Ever. She was having an appreciative moment after all the work that went in to throwing her a birthday party for her friends.

So, she asked me to create a new Microsoft Word document for her composition. My job is to advise companies how to best use Microsoft collaborative technologies including generative AI, so my computers usually have the latest software enabled. As a result, the default prompt in my MS Word is, “Select the icon or press Alt + i to draft with Copilot.”

Miss O said, “Should I use Copilot to draft this?”

And I answered, “Does Copilot know your mother?”

She giggled and got down to typing.

Red Smith is credited with saying, “Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed.” (By the way, Brian from WritingfromtheheartwithBrian has a great post about that: The Lessons I’ve learned from ‘opening a vein.’”)

Safe to say, generative AI is not going to open a vein and bleed. When we write authentic, vulnerable, and moving content, I don’t think there’s any replacement for pouring ourselves into it.

In my analysis of AI usage so far, even mostly functional messages still require a human heart to create content that will engage readers.

But there are some things that generative AI does pretty well — with an image of a sample search inline:

  • Transcription: I appreciate Copilot for the ability to use it to caption meeting content and notes so that I can listen better. However, I still find myself doodling what lands for me because AI doesn’t always prioritize what’s important to me.
  • Search: Copilot can do a pretty time-saving job of searching the Internet for information and returning an answer that synthesizes the various answers. Note: This really prioritizes optimizing our blog content for SEO so that it’s findable and returnable not only for searchers but also AI.
  • Summary: After I publish this post, I’ll ask Copilot to create me a marketing blurb for posting on LinkedIn. Copilot is decent for picking up threads that run through. The caveat here is that it’s hit or miss with humor.

Miss O’s moment of appreciating BME was lovely – and passed pretty quickly. Generative AI on the other hand is here to stay. But don’t worry, it’ll never replace our mothers – or our writing hearts.

(featured image from Pexels)

39 thoughts on “AI Isn’t Going to Bleed on the Paper”

  4. This made me smile and I’m going to share your headline with my colleagues. We’re doing a lot of thinking about AI in our public service work right now and Gen AI, as you can imagine, is the big buzz word.

    I agree with your assessment that there’s so much that the tools do well, but there are also human hearts that can’t quite be replicated… yet… or maybe never. 🙏

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    1. Thank you, Ab! I’d love to know how you end up using AI in your public service work. It is a fascinating topic.

      But I’m with you – our human hearts can’t be replaced. So grateful for yours!

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  8. I’m getting used to searches beginning with a response from AI content popping up as the norm. I think they make a good jumping off point, a guide if you will. Sometimes AI is enough, but most of the time I still extend on my own for deeper content. Love that you are so knowledgeable for the kids as they learn to navigate resources 🙂 Clearly no mom wants to hear their child referring to an AI assistant as “mommy”!

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    1. You have such an astute response to dig deeper, Deb. I think that’s a great practice. For quick answers, it does an okay job of providing a response. I love how you put it – it’s a jumping off point!

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  11. It gave me a giggle that BME passed quickly. Oh my! 😂 Generative AI is really going to change the game, but I agree with your assessment that it would be able to replicate human authenticity any time soon.

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  12. Oh, this is perfect. Love the personal example of Miss O using AI, but I love too that this is the professional review (with the hands-on use) of AI that I’ve been waiting to see. So very helpful. And yes, like you, I think AI can be a huge help, but “I don’t think there’s any replacement for pouring ourselves into it.” Thanks so much Wynne. I appreciate this nudge to try out AI. Thank you.

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  14. Quite an honor to be in the running for best mom ever. I’m afraid one of the judges is a little biased though. 🤣 AI is not known for being very nurturing.

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  16. There’s nothing like human emotion expressed in art. Whether it’s in words, on canvas or in music etc. and whether AI can achieve that is still up in the air. I do believe a time will come when it will be possible. And we won’t know the difference. The sadness lays in the aspect of creativity. We humans get so much from being creative. Machines are stealing that from us. Big topic here and a beautiful post Wynne. Your little Miss O is such a bright impressive little lady.

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