Part 6: Use AI for the alien context (Bakhtin and model collapse: How to use AI with expressive writing without generating AI slop)
This post is part of a series. See Part 5: Use AI for verification for the previous section.
Part 6: Use AI for the alien context
Finally, there’s one more use of AI that’s extremely helpful. Ethan Mollick argues in Co-Intelligence that the alienness of the AI algorithm can help provide an external perspective that we need, helping us see past our own biases. Mollick explains:
“And AI can be very useful. Not just for job tasks, as we will discuss in detail in the coming chapters, but also because an alien perspective can be helpful. Humans are subject to all sorts of biases that impact our decision-making. But many of these biases come from our being stuck in our own minds. Now we have another (strange, artificial) co-intelligence we can turn to for help.” (Chapter 3, “Four Rules for Co-Intelligence,” under the section for Principle 1:)
When writing, we’re frequently blinded by assumptions. To get an outside perspective, I take an early draft and upload it into NotebookLM, then make an audio deep dive or video explainer. Then I listen to it and see if the AI gets my point, or what the AI hosts choose to focus on and the directions they take my ideas.
Listening to my content rendered by the alien algorithm helps me see my content with more distance. In Bakhtin’s terms, I’m seeking a “responsive understanding” (280)—an active listener I can use to “get a reading on” my own words (282). In other words, how does the reader assimilate my words and meaning into their own alien context? Does my meaning align with the listener’s meaning, and if not, how do I refract my words to better achieve my goal?
Again, you can see the dialogic mode between writer and reader, speaker and listener, is shaping the content. I can tell if my points come across or are missed; I can tell if my argument is interesting or lifeless. And I use that response to inform my next words.
Sometimes I’m drawn in by the AI’s flattery (for example, “your connection between Bakhtin and model collapse is brilliant!”), so I have to watch for that. But overall, hearing my own essay as a podcast is like stumbling into a cafe and overhearing one reader explain my post to another person at an adjacent table. It provides a fascinating and helpful perspective. In short, distance.
When I return to my draft, I might incorporate ideas gleaned from the AI, or not. As Kurzweil says, our ideas become indistinguishable in origin (human or machine) as there’s a constant back-and-forth. We end up forming a “heteroglot unity” (284), Bakhtin would say, a back-and-forth building of ideas that might be the new reality of creative work.
Next section
Continue on to the next section, Part 7, Conclusion.
About Tom Johnson
I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.
If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in the tech comm, be sure to subscribe to email updates below. You can also learn more about me or contact me. Finally, note that the opinions I express on my blog are my own points of view, not that of my employer.