Test 3: Add context
Wordtune Spices is also good at fleshing out paragraphs with additional context. By pressing the + button, you can add color and context to a piece of text to prove your point by inserting historical data, jokes and examples.
For example, I took this excerpt from my column last week:
First, it helps to understand why a company needs an email address. For advertisers, web publishers and app makers, your email is important, not just to reach you. It acts as a digital breadcrumb for the company, linking your activity across websites and apps to serve you relevant advertisements.
In Wordtune Spices, I clicked the + button to add an example, a historical fact, and a joke. (Changes are in bold.)
First, it helps to understand why a company needs an email address. For advertisers, web publishers and app makers, your email is important, not just to reach you. For example, by tracking your purchases, a company can recommend products or services that are relevant to you. The first email marketing bomb was sent in 1978 by a guy named Gary Thuerk, who worked for Digital Equipment Corp. Gary Thuerk was also recorded in history as the world’s first “spam” lord!
After doing some research, I’m impressed that 1978 was indeed when email was first used in marketing. The example of using email receipts to serve targeted ads is also spot on. The joke isn’t very funny, but it lightens things up.
Test 4: Closing this column
In the end, I paste the entire column into each writing assistant to see if it can bring up a more important question, or a clever conclusion to wrap it all up.
ChatGPT was the only one of the three able to read the entire text to draw reasonable conclusions:
With AI writing assistants like ChatGPT, Wordtune Spices, and Rytr, we have a powerful tool at our disposal to improve our writing—but only if we use it responsibly.
Wordtune Spices produced an unusable takeaway:
With the help of a writing assistant, I was able to close this column with a well-crafted conclusion that ties together all the points I discussed.
Rytr did, well, something:
National Football League coaches earn an average of $2,000,000 a year.
AI21 Labs, the Israeli start-up that developed Wordtune Spices, says current AI writing techniques require more guidance from the user than hints from me to the tool. Rytr says its users can use the feedback tool to train its AI if something goes wrong. OpenAI declined to comment.
This all shows that artificial intelligence can be an effective tool to improve our work. I’ve been amazed at some of the results—especially how accurate and relevant background information Wordtune Spices can add. I may occasionally use the tool to provide suggestions for fleshing out passages with some historical data, though I do check facts before posting them.
In general, AI bots are useful for polishing prose and cleaning up awkward, ungrammatical sentences.
What a robot cannot do, however, is research or reports to show its strengths and weaknesses. This requires thinking.
