{"id":731,"date":"2023-02-08T18:38:05","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T18:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/?page_id=731"},"modified":"2023-02-08T18:38:05","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T18:38:05","slug":"what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/","title":{"rendered":"What A.I. Writing Can (and Can&#8217;t) Do"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>What A.I. Writing Software <u>can do<\/u>:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Produce strings of language that look &amp; sound like they could have been written by a human being (albeit a very utilitarian &amp; mechanistic-sounding human, mostly).<\/li>\n<li>Write in the voice\/tone\/conventions of relatively stable &amp; formulaic genres with easily identifiable conventions (five-paragraph essays, simple rhyming poems, lab reports, songs by well-known bands, obituaries, wedding speeches, etc.).<\/li>\n<li>Summarize and provide basic analyses of texts that have been extensively written about by human beings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What A.I. Writing Software <u>can\u2019t do<\/u>:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Invent truly new, truly \u201coriginal\u201d language<\/strong> (in the sense that we typically think about \u201coriginality\u201d). Every word an A.I. software \u201cwrites\u201d is pulled from a variety of other texts written by human beings &amp; <u>remixed<\/u> to create something that <em>feels<\/em> original (because, again, its training data \/ source material was originally written by human beings).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Reliably cite sources<\/strong>. More often than not, they will fabricate sources, which could put students in the awkward position of having to \u201cclaim\u201d writing with made-up information as their own, or confess that an A.I. made up the source (both of which are academic integrity violations).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Analyze or produce new figurative language<\/strong>. Unless particular metaphors (and explanations of them) have been programmed into its system, an A.I. cannot tell you that, for example, that \u201clife is a highway\u201d (nor why you may want to drive it all night long), or why you might call a human being an \u201cearly bird\u201d who rushes to work in order to \u201cget the worm.\u201d Its output operates primarily at the level literal interpretations of words and phrases and cannot reliably <u>invent<\/u> novel figurative language.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Summarize or analyze texts that have not been processed \/ written about in their corpora of training data<\/strong>. There is a better chance that the A.I. can write a relatively decent essay about the \u201cthemes\u201d (generically defined) in Shakespeare\u2019s <em>A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em> than a rhetorical analysis of a recently-published op-ed in the New York Times.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Substantively reflect<\/strong> <strong>on \u201cchoices\u201d<\/strong> it has made about why it wrote the way it did (at least, not in natural language \/ concepts we use to refer to human cognition &amp; decision-making).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What A.I. Writing Software can do: Produce strings of language that look &amp; sound like they could have been written by a human being (albeit a very utilitarian &amp; mechanistic-sounding human, mostly). Write in the voice\/tone\/conventions of relatively stable &amp; formulaic genres with easily identifiable conventions (five-paragraph essays, simple rhyming poems, lab reports, songs by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":377,"featured_media":0,"parent":727,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-731","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.5 (Yoast SEO v25.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What A.I. Writing Can (and Can&#039;t) Do - Allan K. Smith Center for Writing and Rhetoric<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What A.I. Writing Can (and Can&#039;t) Do\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What A.I. Writing Software can do: Produce strings of language that look &amp; sound like they could have been written by a human being (albeit a very utilitarian &amp; mechanistic-sounding human, mostly). Write in the voice\/tone\/conventions of relatively stable &amp; formulaic genres with easily identifiable conventions (five-paragraph essays, simple rhyming poems, lab reports, songs by [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Allan K. Smith Center for Writing and Rhetoric\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/\",\"name\":\"What A.I. Writing Can (and Can't) Do - Allan K. Smith Center for Writing and Rhetoric\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-08T18:38:05+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Allan K. Smith Center for Writing and Rhetoric\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"A.I. Writing and Effective Learning\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"What A.I. Writing Can (and Can&#8217;t) Do\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/\",\"name\":\"Allan K. Smith Center for Writing and Rhetoric\",\"description\":\"Writing at Trinity\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What A.I. Writing Can (and Can't) Do - Allan K. Smith Center for Writing and Rhetoric","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What A.I. Writing Can (and Can't) Do","og_description":"What A.I. Writing Software can do: Produce strings of language that look &amp; sound like they could have been written by a human being (albeit a very utilitarian &amp; mechanistic-sounding human, mostly). Write in the voice\/tone\/conventions of relatively stable &amp; formulaic genres with easily identifiable conventions (five-paragraph essays, simple rhyming poems, lab reports, songs by [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/","og_site_name":"Allan K. Smith Center for Writing and Rhetoric","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/","url":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/","name":"What A.I. Writing Can (and Can't) Do - Allan K. Smith Center for Writing and Rhetoric","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-02-08T18:38:05+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/what-a-i-writing-can-and-cant-do\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Allan K. Smith Center for Writing and Rhetoric","item":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"A.I. Writing and Effective Learning","item":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/writing-center-2\/a-i-writing-and-effective-learning\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"What A.I. Writing Can (and Can&#8217;t) Do"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/","name":"Allan K. Smith Center for Writing and Rhetoric","description":"Writing at Trinity","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/377"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/731\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/writing-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}