I’ve been wondering about this lately.

Recently, I made a post about Ukraine on another social media site, and someone jumped in with the usual "Ukraine isn't a democracy" right-wing talking point. I wrote out a long, thoughtful reply, only to get the predictable one-liner propaganda responses back. You probably know the type, just regurgitated stuff with no real engagement.

After that, I didn’t really feel like spending my time and energy writing out detailed replies to every canned response. But I also didn’t want to just let it sit there and have people who might be reading the exchange assume there’s no pushback or correction.

So instead, I tried leveraging AI to help me write a fact-checking reply. Not for the person I was arguing with, really, but more as an FYI for anyone else following along. I made sure it stayed factual and based in reality, avoided name-calling, and kept the tone above the usual mudslinging. And of course, I double-checked what it wrote to make sure it matched my understanding and wasn’t just spitting out garbage or hallucinations.

But it got me thinking that there’s a lot of fear about AI being used to spread and create misinformation. But do you think there’s also an opportunity to use it as a tool to counter misinformation, without burning ourselves out in the process?

Curious how others see it.

So I have heard/read that LLMs available to the public can be useful for generating tailored cover letters more quickly. I've up to now avoided using artificial intelligence. What recommendations do you have and do you have any advice for getting up to speed?

Thank you.

I asked Claude for references to some ideas the ai had output earlier about a 16th century cardinal (Sadoleto). It's response was, Let me analyze the letter, and then this:

async function searchForSadoletoLetter() {
  try {
    const files = ['sadoleto_letter.txt', 'sadoleto.txt', 'sadoleto_to_geneva.txt', 'letter_to_geneva.txt'];
    
    for (const filename of files) {
      try {
        const content = await window.fs.readFile(filename, { encoding: 'utf8' });
        console.log(`Found file: ${filename}`);
        console.log("First 500 characters:");
        console.log(content.substring(0, 500));
        return content;
      } catch (err) {
        // File not found, try the next one
      }
    }
    console.log("Could not find any files containing Sadoleto's letter");
    return null;
  } catch (err) {
    console.error("Error searching for files:", err);
    return null;
  }
}

const content = await searchForSadoletoLetter();

// Since we don't have the letter available as a file, let's search for published versions online
console.log("The letter isn't available as a file. We would need to rely on scholarly knowledge about Sadoleto's letter to Geneva (1539).");
console.log("Sadoleto's letter was published in 'A Reformation Debate: Sadoleto's Letter to the Genevans and Calvin's Reply' (ed. John C. Olin).");

This strikes me as odd? Did Claude write a script to generate its own response? Have coders put something like this in as a gaurdrail?

edit: details about earlier convo

I recently had an unpleasant experience. Something I wrote fully and without AI generation of any kind was perceived, and accused of, having been produced by AI. Because I wanted to get everything right, in that circumstance, I wrote in my "cold and precise" mode, which admittedly can sound robotic. However, my writing was pointed, perhaps even a little hostile, with a clear point of view. Not the kind of text AI generally produces. After the experience, I started to think of ways to write less like an AI -- which, paradoxically, means forcing my very organic self into adopting "human-like" language I don't necessarily care for. That made me think that AI is probably changing the way a lot of people write, perhaps in subtle ways. Have you noticed this happening with you or those around you?

I sometimes use chatGPT to proofread longer texts (like 1000+ words) I write in English. Although this is not my first language, I often find myself writing in English even outside of internet forums. That is because if I read or watch something in English, and that thing motivates me to write, my brain organically gravitates toward it.

My English is pretty good and I am reasonably confident communicating in that language, but it will never be the same as my native language. So I will often run my stuff through Grammarly and chatGPT. If you wanna say "This will teach you bad habits", please don't. Things like Grammarly and Google Translate taught me so much and improved my English so much, that I am a bit tired of that line of reasoning. I read most of my books in English. I'm not a beginner so I can and do check for all the changes, and vet them myself as I don't always agree with them.

With GPT, I usually just ask it to elaborate a critique rather than spit out a corrected version. Truth be told, when I did ask for a corrected version, it made plenty of sensible corrections that didn't really alter anything other than that. So I guess I just wanna know everyone's feelings about this. Suppose I write a bunch, have GPT correct it for me, compare it with the original and verify every correction. Is that something you would look at unfavorably?

Thanks!