Don’t Become AI Freelance Writer

Will AI hinder your writing opportunities or will it create opportunities for new writers? Both a professional writer and AI Chatbox weigh in.

Who Are You Fooling?

Imagine becoming an automobile mechanic, doctor, lawyer, or writer without academic learning. You just push a button or speak a command, and voila! The solution appears within seconds. This notion is coming within the realm of reality.

The ClinicalPosters.com website includes guest posts and commissioned articles, with the majority written internally. As an editor, I can tell when someone submits an AI generated article. Depending on how much effort the submitter puts into obscuring their subterfuge, I either massage it for a human feel or reject it outright. The goal on this site is to provide informative, yet evocative, writing—not simply filler.

Common telltale signs of robotic authors

Post-graduate grammar
Run-on sentences
Non-authoritative sentences
Proliferation of the word “can”
Repetitious sentence subject
Redundancy in long articles

One freelancer offered 400-word stories on any topic. Each was nearly the exact length with useful information. But I would remove half of the redundant sentences before crafting unique ones to bring back the word count. He no longer provides articles for this site.

If you want to be a freelancer, don’t skip the important step of becoming a good writer. Understanding specific instructions, adapting to certain styles, and supplying supportive references requires an understanding of the material.

Satisfying the needs of different customers is also essential to being a good freelance writer. Answer the question when writing, what am I going to tell this audience that they don’t know already?

Artificial Intelligence Writing Limitations

AI is not entirely bad. This website uses it to provide natural sounding speech-to-text. Despite all of the incredible power and potential that AI chatbots hold, there are still some major limitations to this technology.

One of the biggest challenges is that these chatbots lack the human intuition and understanding that is needed to provide truly meaningful stories. In other words, human warmth is often missing from the text. A writer needs to bond with story characters, and readers, in order to emote.

Because chatbots operate on set algorithms and parameters, they interpret conversation differently than people. Some of the most common limitations are accuracy, relevancy, and understanding of context. AI chatbot writing is still in its nascent stages. It is not yet able to accurately weed out repetitive phrasing or navigate the nuances of human relationships, emotional reactions, and distinctive writing styles.^[6]

Utility of AI chatbots decreases significantly for creative writing, as the creative process requires a deep understanding of language and syntax. Finally, AI chatbots are trained on data provided by humans, which can lead to bias in the system if the data set is not properly balanced and curated.^[7]

All this limits AI writing to providing mostly factual information, not complex pieces of writing. A step above factual is to produce articles that people actually enjoy reading. Nevertheless, AI chatbot apps can be supplemental research tools. Technology is advancing quickly. It is likely that the current limitations will significantly reduce in the near future.^[8]

Law professors at the University of Minnesota used the ChatGPT to generate answers to exams in four law courses and it passed with an C+ grade. AI capabilities will “completely transform” all of Microsoft’s products, chief executive, Satya Nadella, said in an on-stage interview with the Wall Street Journal. With investments exceeding $1 billion, the company plans to integrate AI within its search engine, Bing.

Man vs Robot

An effective way of measuring your worth as a writer is to feed the parameters of the best story you’ve written into a chatbot. Then compare it to what you produce with actual brain cells. If the AI is better, your writing career is in jeopardy.

Having said all of that, I challenged AI Chatbox with this task. “Write an evocative story about liver cancer.” This is the chatbox reply:

John was a healthy young adult, enjoying life to its fullest. All that changed one day, when he received the news that he had liver cancer. He was scared and confused, his thoughts consumed by questions. How would he make it through?

John underwent surgery to remove the cancer, but recovery was painful and difficult. The days dragged on, and John was getting weaker and weaker. He felt alone, with nobody to confide in and nowhere to turn.

One day he found comfort in an unlikely source—his medical team. They provided support and understanding, walking with John through each difficult moment. With their help and guidance, John slowly recovered, and eventually returned to the life he had once known.

John's experience changed him. He now dedicated his life to advocating and raising awareness for liver cancer. He found new meaning in life, and saw how adversity can lead to strength. He used his experience to inspire others, to never give up hope regardless of how difficult things may seem. He was a true survivor.^🤖

Retrying the query produces alternate compositions. Hemingway Editor identifies this AI story as grade-6 writing level with 1 passive voice and 2 sentences that can be simpler.

I give the bot credit for attempting an “evocative” style. In fact, it’s better than some non-writers can do. But is the story worthwhile and engaging? What are your suggestions for improvement? How does it compare with the one entitled Avoid Liver Cancer Lifestyle? Better yet, compare it with ClinicalNovellas.

Having eviscerated AI, I will offer the following tips for those desiring to use it as a research tool. Don’t just ask for a 1000-word article on a specific topic. Query specific subtopics within your articles. Be willing to edit the results you receive.

Some AI writing tools are better than others. Don’t just use one because it has artificial intelligence in the name. Facing much backlash for using AI one weekend, Ammaar Reshi wrote, illustrated, and self-published Alice and Sparkle, a children’s book.

Remember, you are the writer. Very soon, AI text will permeate blogs, news sites, and books. You have been forewarned. The robots are coming. Will they take your job?