Co-creating with AI for *quality* written content

Some people misuse AI to carelessly publish mountains of stylistically mediocre and factually inaccurate writing. Don’t be one of those people, especially when you can use AI to stretch the quality of your writing far past what you can achieve unaided… and without the slightest feeling that you’re “cheating”.

Here are five effective, guilt-free ways to work with AI to produce quality written content:

1: Iterate and refine.

Don’t expect AI to produce exactly what you were looking for on the first try. If you’re looking for quality, then any creative process must be iterative, even when AI isn’t involved. Spend some time nudging your AI agent in the right direction to mold the text output into a close approximation of what you want. Don’t shy away from rolling up your sleeves and taking over, once a document is more than ninety percent of the way to perfect.

Say what’s wrong.

Modern AI remembers the context of your conversation, which makes it very powerful. You don’t have to repeat yourself nearly as much as people have to with traditional software (whether you’re creating software or just using it). If you don’t like the poem you requested, simply tell the AI agent what you’d like to change, rather than repeating the list of features you’d like to see in the poem. If the case study you wanted doesn’t have the right structure, tone, or focus, just point out what’s needs fixing.

Show what’s right.

Even when you give AI a thoughtful description of what you want it to produce, that still leaves ample room for interpretation. If you have a very specific document in your mind’s eye, it is usually better to provide an example of what you want (or an example of its most critical features). You’ll save yourself a lot of back and forth. If you ask for a story written in the style of your favorite author, the AI agent might produce something close, but if you give it a specific example of a paragraph that you’re trying to emulate, the result will be much closer.

2: Entertain artificial opinions.

It’s true that AI doesn’t have direct experience of the world. However, it has been trained on many millions of experiences. Asking what an AI agent thinks about something can be rather insightful. If you’ve written something, AI can give you excellent feedback. If you’re interested in optimizing your work processes or your approach to solving problems, AI can help you identify the pros and cons of your current strategy.

Ask for options.

Co-write efficiently by asking AI for more than one version of the output. Three to five is a good number. You’ll have an easier time of understanding what works and what doesn’t when you have an assortment spread before you. Even if you don’t like any of those options, at least you’ll know what you don’t like. That’ll give you more clarity about what you actually wanted in the first place. Use this newfound clarity to further iterate and refine (see above). Whether it’s character profiles, plot twists, rhyme schemes, or article topics, generating many contrasting options will accelerate your brainstorming.

Rank and group.

Let AI handle preliminary sorting and grouping. Ask it how it arrived at a specific set of categories instead of some other set. Ask it if anything looks unusual. Even if you have to ask it to reconsider, AI’s initial analysis is quick and valuable.

• “Rank these best to worst.”
• “Which of these go together? Justify your categories.”
• “Along how many criteria/dimensions can you group these items?”
• “What title would you give this group?”
• “Consolidate the items in these groups into a smaller set of broader groups.”
• “Redistribute the items in these groups into a greater number of narrower groups.”
• “Which one of these do you recommend? Justify your choice.”
• “Is anything notably absent from this set?”
• “Which item is the misfit, the odd one out?”
• “Are there any anomalies or outliers?”

3: Explore multiple levels.

During AI-assisted problem solving learn to zoom in and out quickly. Switch between the problem’s macro-level structure (phases, swimlanes, milestones…) to focus on a key detail (theme, tone, outcomes, characters, participants, audience, layout, plot…). Then, zoom back out to apply the ripple effects of that small but critical change to the rest of the plan. Getting myopically lost in just one level can lead to expensive and frustrating surprises at a different level.

Request an outline.

Instead of asking for an entire article, press release, or short story, begin by requesting an outline of the document. You’ll identify gaps and make improvements more quickly. You’ll also have an easier time of requesting the full copy, section by section; this technique usually yields better quality.

Narrow your focus.

After you’ve co-authored a working outline, you’re free to dip into any items in that outline. You’ll find it easier to skip from one item to another, out of order, without feeling lost. You’ll progress faster. If those excursions into specific items result in paradigm-shifting epiphanies, share those thoughts with your AI partner and ask it for a revised outline.

4: Discover the facts.

“AI-generated” isn’t necessarily synonymous with “inaccurate”. Through conscientious co-creation, you can produce factual, high-quality documents in much less time than you’d manage on your own. You’ll also probably discover facts and resources that you wouldn’t come across without AI’s help. AI agents aren’t gifted lateral thinkers or interdisciplinary researchers, but it’s possible to encourage them to adopt such traits.

Delegate preliminary research.

AI can sometimes be a bit slapdash with research, but so can an intern or research assistant. Give it a list of questions to try to answer. To start, don’t limit its choice of sources; let it explore the dingy depths of the public Internet and retrieve a pile of rumors and hearsay for you to sift through. Better than searching for it yourself. Also ask AI to draw parallels with similar research in unrelated disciplines.

Manually verify sources.

Check every fact you’re planning to use in your work. Some AI agents cite sources by default. Even if your preferred AI agent doesn’t, ask it for sources. You get to decide which sources are credible, but you can ask AI’s opinion, too. You can ask it to identify commonly cited sources for a particular kind of fact. Ask for a fact-checking checklist that’s tailored to the kind of information you’re interested in.

5: Inject some humanity.

AI-generated writing is typically free of typos, grammatical errors, and poor punctuation. But it’s also often devoid of personality. You’ll be compelled to edit a “perfectly serviceable” article by introducing what some might consider imperfections. And that’s part of what’s required to make the writing feel natural. Start with AI’s quickfire prosaic prose, and spend your time supplying the missing creative flair.

Emulate someone’s style.

Give the AI agent a writing sample. It could be your own, or it could be someone else’s. But it has to be pure, unadulterated human-crafted writing. Ask AI to write in the same style on an unrelated topic. If it doesn’t do too well, provide multiple samples from the same author. Still not quite there? Ask AI about the writer’s unique style, and then ask it to replicate the same style.

Riff off randomness.

Writers and AI researchers often discuss the creative limits of today’s AI agents. Long story short, there are elements of both novelty and conformity in AI’s output. Overcome this by asking for random words related to your writing topic. Then, ask for word combinations that are both unusual and memorable. Ask for striking imagery inspired by those word combinations. Ask for one-sentence story synopses based on that imagery. Keep searching for something fresh and juicy as you churn through these strange permutations.

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