Did we collectively stop trying?

I don’t have any real talent. I can’t sing or dance. I can’t point to every country on a map. I’m not good at any sports — which may be a talent in itself — and I’m not about to find the cure to cancer. However, there’s one thing I’m good at: writing.

When I was little I used to rewrite famous songs and at school my favourite subjects were always the ones I wrote the most. Once I got into the job market, I found writing jobs that allowed me to make money from a passion of mine. I’ve always trusted I could solve any writing task and this got me to where I am today.

I’ve worked in content/ communications/ copywriting for the last 10 years during which I’ve had to use many tools that helped me deliver better outcomes. By far, the one that made the most difference: ChatGPT. As I’m sure for everyone reading this, ChatGPT has allowed me to be faster in some tasks, to unlock better ideas and even to change some of my writings’ tone. I love it. I’m just sad people aren’t even trying.

Even myself. I’ve found myself asking ChatGPT for things I know I’m better at doing. Do I need to summarise something? I get GPT to do it. Do I need to rewrite something? I ask for its input first. Of course I then change it and make it my own, but why is this my first instinct? By no means do I want this to sound like those people who hate AI and technology. It’s quite the opposite. I love what AI has done, how useful it is and I use it every day for both work and personal tasks. My problem? We all now sound the same and we simply stopped caring.

If you open LinkedIn it seems like people don’t have a personality. Everyone is writing the same way, using the same examples and keywords. The biggest concern? Some people don’t even realise it.

As a writer, I’m used to getting my texts revised by my managers and getting their feedback on changing a specific word or phrase. Even with this text, I’m sure some of you would change the way I wrote it. Sometimes you don’t like a specific word. Others, you may think it could benefit from longer or shorter sentences. Yet, why aren’t so many as picky with what ChatGPT provides them? Most people seem to simply copy paste it and that’s it. It’s clear when something was written by ChatGPT and, in my eyes, it just comes across as lazy when you don’t even adapt it.

I think maybe we all just stopped trying. I hear people excuse this by saying they can’t write. So they get GPT to write them an email, a birthday message, maybe even a breakup text. I also don’t like maths, but I don’t go running to ChatGPT every time I need to do a basic calculation at the supermarket.

So, what do I mean by this? For us all use ChatGPT to help make our lives easier, not lazier. On my side, I’ll be trying my best!