We now live in a world where AI tools are being used for all sorts of things…but the primary use for many is ‘writing’ for business – papers, presentations, marketing, LinkedIn articles, website Blog posts and more. As a business historian and writer of 39 books, and business book coach, I can absolutely state that ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and other AI tools CAN’T write high quality books….they can help you, but they’ll ruin your reputation if you don’t make the effort to actually write yourself.
If get it, it’s hard to write a book, it take thought, structure, time and lots of revisions.
And, we live in a world surrounded by a wide range of restrictions, both formal and informal, around what we can say and write, and this changes constantly. There’s a war going on around political correctness and wokeness.
The consequences of not writing a high quality book (or LinkedIn Article, Blog post, business paper or presentation can be significant, so it’s no wonder people are looking to AI.
I’ve just finished reading a book by the co founder (Alexander Karp) and CEO (Nicholas Zamiska) of Palantir, a US tech company that creates and supplies tech services to the US Defence Department and the military of other nations, The Technological Republic Hard Power, Soft Belief and the Future of the West.
It’s a challenging read as a key part of the book is the lack of values and belief across the Silicon Valley cohort of startups, scale-ups and, now some the world’s largest tech companies. It’s a call out to the ‘tech crowd (and everyone really) to toughen up intellectually or as they put it ‘leaders must reject intellectual fragility’. A couple of sentences stood out for me.
An aspirational desire for tolerance of everything has descended into supporting nothing.
The future belongs to those who, rather than hide behind an often hollow claim of accommodating all views, fight for something singular and new.
But who will know if I’ve used AI to ‘write’ my book?
I will. I can pick AI written articles and books within 2-3 paragraphs. AI tools have a particular style of their own and, yes, you can customise them to a degree (and ‘feed’ them your content so they can learn your style)…but I can still tell. Which is why you must take the time to review, revise and rework ANY and ALL AI generated content.
It’s a big challenge to craft, write and self publish a book. And it takes time. AI can ‘write’ at warp speed. The problem though is at warp speed it hallucinates, makes stuff up (including references), and simply regurgitates what’s already in the AI model. If you add your own IP it”ll just spit that back at you and then also share it with the world – any why would you do that?
When you set about writing your book you are backing yourself, putting your thoughts and ideas out there into the world. Part of this is wanting people to be inspired, motivated and like your book/ides/concepts. You will no doubt have a level of fear. Fear of being criticised, judged or scrutinised (or all three) is way more than book imposter syndrome.
This fear can result in you avoiding writing certain things, writing them in a way that’s less direct so as not to offend someone/anyone, or writing something that doesn’t fundamentally align with your values and beliefs (because it’s good for marketing or will make a few dollars). OR using ChatGPT to write it for you.
I have often had to consider IF and/or how I write a fact or series of events that occurred that were damaging, dangerous, disastrous or caused significant corporate failure. The approach I take with my clients is as follows: ‘You have to write about this, and it’s my job to write it in a way that is accurate, concise, recognises the key issue/s and then what was done as a result. To not write about it is NOT an option…the history will be viewed as inaccurate, and my reputation will be compromised.’ On two occasions I have taken my name off a book as we were unable to come to an agreement.
For self published writers the issue is way more personal because you are sharing your thinking, insights, concepts and words. You have a particular style/approach, beliefs and values that inform these, and you are articulating these through your writing.
So, you need to be prepared to share and write what you believe and the values that underpin these. If not, why write it?
This requires some bravery, but the alternative is writing a book that stands for nothing, delivers nothing new and just adds to morass of crap content (AI slop) that’s out in the world already.
So, is there anything you really can’t write?
I’d say no there isn’t, but then there are a range of laws that stipulate otherwise in all countries relating to what you can write about a person, (libel), say about groups of people (discrimination), incite specific actions (terrorism, hate, vilification) and more. And the laws around all these areas and others vary significantly depending on the country you are in…or where your book is sold. The US libel laws are significantly different to those in Australia.
I worked with one client who wrote a biography and used a US-based self publishing company. Having paid her money and started the process the company demanded that she either ask all her family for approval about what she had written about them, or change all the names…neither an acceptable option for her. She lost her money and never published the book.
Of course, you can’t write things that a clearly not truthful, but there’s a whole discussion to be had about what truth is these days. I am sure you have heard the expression ‘Well, that’s my truth”, which doesn’t really relate to truth at all, rather a person’s opinion on a topic based on their knowledge or lack thereof of the topic…or what Influencer, politician they follow.
And, determining what the truth is, is often difficult due to an asymmetry of information, dis-information and rampant misinformation.
How do you write so that it’s aligned with your values and beliefs?
Firstly, you need to be really clear about what your values and beliefs are and be prepared to stand up for them, defend them and discuss them…in fact your book is actually part of the way you do this.
AI doesn’t know what your values and beliefs are – even if you put these into your custom GPT. Values and beliefs inform what you write about, and leave out or explore. They inform how you work, the knowledge and insights you have and how you engage with people. AI can’t ‘do’ this, it’s not designed to ‘do this’. It might sound human-like in its responses, but it’s not human. That’s your job.
When you catch yourself thinking ‘I can’t write THAT!’ think again.
Firstly, as yourself, ‘Why do I think this? Is that you self-editing, not wanting to rock the boat and challenge your readers, or is simply easier? Can you rewrite it in a way that expresses the thought/approach differently? Perhaps you can ask someone else for their opinion . . . many of our clients ask me.
Secondly, is what you are writing going to be of value to your reader/audience? Is it about being provocative/challenging – or simply your ego popping out to show off? Consider how important what you have written is to the overall message and actions you want for your reader. Does it add to or subtract from these?
Thirdly, if you strongly disagree with, or want to make a statement about something or someone clearly state why you disagree with them and why WITHOUT getting personal.
I’ve been reading a great book titled In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat by John Gribben. It’s about the development of quantum mechanics. Now as a ‘creative’ maths was never my strong suits, but it’s my son’s so I was keen to read a book written for a layperson like me…and it’s a terrific read.
One of the many facts that Gribben shares is the long and involved discussions, letters and correspondence between many of the world’s leading (and Nobel Prize winning) physicists including Einstein, Max Born, Niels Bohr, Satyendra Bose, Max Planck and others. They were constantly testing out each other’s theories to improve them or disprove them. Disagreement is a good thing if it can remain a discussion rather than devolve into a personal attack. If someone disagrees with what you’re writing that’s a good thing. It means they have read your book, have formed a view and are willing to share it (engage) with you. Happy days…your book as made an impact on at least one person.
I used to say,
‘it’s not what you write but how you write it’.
I have revised this and now say:
‘it is about what you write AND how you write it’.
We live in a world where many people are too afraid to say what they believe and stand up for their values as they fear the criticism or worse still the backlash that might come through any number of social and traditional media platforms and channels.
But if we’re all cowered into silence for fear of offending someone or disagreeing with them, we end up in a world where no-one stands for anything anymore.
So, legal restrictions aside, (and there are plenty of these) you can write THAT!
In fact, you need to write what you believe and are passionate about, clearly and concisely.
By all means use the wide range of AI tools that are out there as part of your research and writing process (I use a multitude of them and you can read about some of them on this LinkedIn post. But don’t outsource your writing to it.
You’ve spent a lifetime building your reputation…don’t undo it by writing boring content that doesn’t share your point of view, is a bad re-hash of AI slop and quotes made up references.
Start or keep writing, and if you’re not sure, connect with me here or contact me: [email protected]