Some pointers on how to use AI at work
You’ll know it when you see it, a text or a whole chunk of email completely generated or partially polished by AI. What makes it so? There are tells according to this and this. It’s a shame that I now have to think twice before using the long dash.
Laziness and sloppy writing aside, we do need to talk about AI norms at work.
Kevin Delay at Charter wrote a 4-point summary on “How to use ChatGPT without being annoying":
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1. Don't be AI’s middleman. Any task you’re using genAI for should still involve some effort. If you’re brainstorming with colleagues, don’t send them the 20 ideas ChatGPT or Claude gives you. (Admitting you used the tool doesn’t make this much better.) Select the best ideas and then send those to your colleagues, along with a description of what you think about each.
2. Verify facts. It’s well established at this point that genAI tools occasionally make things up. If you would have been embarrassed to share a document with errors before genAI, you should feel the same way now.
3. Ask yourself, “Would I accept this level of quality from a colleague?” If the answer is no, don’t pass it along yet; edit it until you’re happy with the output, then send it to them.
4. Provide context the AI tool doesn’t have. You know things about your company and the project you’re working on that genAI tools aren't privy to. Give them that context in your prompts; edit what they give you to make it work for your company.
2. Verify facts. It’s well established at this point that genAI tools occasionally make things up. If you would have been embarrassed to share a document with errors before genAI, you should feel the same way now.
3. Ask yourself, “Would I accept this level of quality from a colleague?” If the answer is no, don’t pass it along yet; edit it until you’re happy with the output, then send it to them.
4. Provide context the AI tool doesn’t have. You know things about your company and the project you’re working on that genAI tools aren't privy to. Give them that context in your prompts; edit what they give you to make it work for your company.