3 Ways Generative AI Can (Actually) Help with Creativity
There’s a pivotal scene in the first act of the film, “Moneyball,” where General Manager Billy Beane—portrayed by Brad Pitt—is sitting around a table with a group of baseball scouts debating which players to sign to the Oakland A’s and why. Beane has brought in a young Harvard-educated math whiz—portrayed by Jonah Hill—to serve as the team’s new Assistant General Manager, who introduces the concept of using analytics to determine a player’s value to the team.
The scouts are all older and clearly resistant to an inexperienced whipper snapper influencing Billy’s thinking. They dismiss certain proposed players because of their off-field behavior, weight, and how they play the game. Billy is having none of it, insisting that the only thing that matters is the stats they are looking for and how much it will cost the team to sign them.
“This is the new direction of the Oakland A’s,” he declares.
Later, the most outspoken scout pulls Billy aside to voice his displeasure with the new process.
“You don’t put a team together with a computer, Billy,” he protests.
“Adapt or die,” he says simply.
I can’t think of a better analogy that evokes the current debate about the use of generative AI in creative pursuits (although I’m firmly against death as an option).
AI Skepticism is Warranted Right Now
When ChatGPT was introduced in November 2022, many of us looked at it with the type of side-eye the Jonah Hill character received from the scouts in “Moneyball.” But if you’re familiar with the film or the real-life events that inspired it, you know that the analytics approach to building a successful sports team the Jonah character introduces not only transformed the A’s that season but also how the professional sports industry has been managed since.
In other words, the scouts end up looking stubborn and out of touch for sticking to their old ways and not embracing a technology that could better help them do their jobs. See where I’m going with this?
If you’re skeptical that generative AI is an effective tool for content creation, you have every reason to be. Skilled writers know that gen AI cannot create better content than them. But those who do not understand how powerful and persuasive well-written content can be might find the bland and cliched output of long-form gen AI writing satisfactory. Many writers work for and are accountable to some who hold this unfortunate viewpoint.
However, that doesn’t mean communicators should throw the baby out with the bath water and eschew using gen AI altogether. Doing so could make you appear as inflexible and out of touch as a roomful of senior baseball scouts who are resisting the revolution unfolding in front of their eyes.
Why AI Rhetoric is Bothersome
If you hear someone say, “AI,” and immediately roll your eyes, I totally get it. I believe there are a few reasons for this that have little to do with the tool itself.
First of all, I think the media is shaping the perception of AI’s role in society in a hyperbolic way that can turn off the audience. There’s no shortage of news stories about how many jobs AI will eliminate. These stories are reminiscent of a prevailing narrative in the media seven years ago around self-driving vehicles. Major outlets breathlessly declared, “Millions of Professional Drivers Will Be Replaced by Self-Driving Vehicles.”
At the time, the media was steadfast in continuing to push the narrative that autonomous vehicles were very quickly going to transform the auto industry with proclamations such as: “Self-Driving Trucks May Be Closer Than They Appear” and “The [Goldman Sachs] report estimates that semi- and fully autonomous car sales will have about 20 percent share of car sales around 2025 to 2030.” Seven years later, this erroneous future-casting seems downright silly. It’s understandable that similar assertions about AI today are being met with distrust and skepticism.
Secondly, businesses are so eager to jump on the AI bandwagon that they are investing a lot of money in building out their AI capabilities. This has led to a glut of AI tools on the market of dubious effectiveness and usefulness. Because gen AI tools are a relatively nascent technology, there is a lot of room for improvement, and consequently, many users have come away from using the tools for the first time feeling underwhelmed. As we know, first impressions are powerful, and more work needs to be done by the purveyors of AI tools to move users beyond negative first impressions of their offerings.
Finally, many gen AI users misunderstand the proper role the technology should play in the writing process. Believe it or not, some users input a skilled writer’s work into the tool, thinking it can produce a “better” alternative version of the same content. To reiterate, AI-generated content cannot replicate the nuanced originality of human-crafted writing. AI is best used as a tool to assist you as you write, not a full-scale replacement for a completed piece of content.
Additionally, as has been well documented, gen AI can produce false or misleading information, so for those who generate longer-form content with the tool, humans should always edit and fact-check the output. Users should view AI as a way to enhance their own creativity and productivity rather than as a shortcut to producing high-quality content.
Best Creative Use Cases for Gen AI
Despite all of the aforementioned blocks that might be preventing you from fully embracing gen AI as a tool to use in your creative work, it is a valuable resource that can help you overcome some of the challenges of the writing process. Let’s explore the best use cases.
Generating Ideas
All of us who write content for a living have experienced the much-dreaded writer’s block that slows our overall productivity. Experimenting with the tool can help you arrive at the content you are struggling to create. If you find yourself stuck with what to say next in your writing, try inputting prompts into a gen AI tool to see if any of the responses spark inspiration. The AI responses may help you look at your topic in a different way or lead you down a path you hadn’t previously considered. Most writers have a collection of hacks that can help them spark ideas when none are forthcoming, and gen AI is one more that can be added to the list.
Producing Novelty
When your job is to continually write content around the same topics, you tend to lean on the same words or phrases that are familiar and top of mind. Unlike an online thesaurus, which is only helpful in supplying you with synonyms for particular words, a gen AI tool can provide you with alternative phrasing to diversify the language you use in your writing. In an effort to broaden your vernacular, you may also uncover new ways to think about your subject matter. Expanding the language you use to share your message gives the reader a richer experience that is more likely to resonate.
Streamlining Language
As writers, we can be a little wordy. Generative AI tools, on the other hand, are very effective at making succinct copy. If I write a meandering sentence that I’m struggling to shorten and tighten, gen AI is an effective editor that can help me cut down text while retaining my point. While gen AI tools can occasionally edit out too much text to the point that the meaning of your writing can shift, it can serve as a good guidepost for where your copy needs to be tighter and clearer.
The Bottom Line
You don’t want to be seen as one of the cantankerous members of your team, unwilling to adapt to a new way of working. Even if your organization is not yet a proponent of using gen AI to produce creative work, there’s no harm in experimenting with the available tools to see how they can best work for your creative process. Writing is not easy, which is why gen AI will likely never create the types of masterpieces that are celebrated over time. But that doesn’t mean it can’t serve as a helpful sidekick while you craft your next compelling narrative.
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About the Author
Erin Payton is the Integrated Customer Marketing Manager for PR Newswire. In her role, she develops multichannel marketing campaigns, drives demand generation, fosters brand awareness and creates thought leadership. Away from the keyboard, she is an unabashedly enthusiastic cat mom to Mia.