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Autopilot, Muse, Co-author, Editor. How do you use GenAI?

joe neville -

Thoughts on how to use Generative A.I. to write.

If you are not using a GenAI tool, like ChatGPT, you know someone that does.
And you've definitely read hundreds of LinkedIn posts that were entirely written by GenAI.

Did you notice that your colleague who used to write a short update like:

'Met with team for the quarterly review & cupcakes! #yum #teamwork #rockstars #cake'

Suddenly, they seemed to become much more ebullient and flowery in their words, emotional range, and emoji use?

And now, without fail, every post must have a final motivational message to stir the heart (and the Like button).

👩‍⚖️ Exhibit A:

Yes, that post was written without any input from me, no prompting of what the post should contain other than:

Write a LinkedIn post about a meeting

That's it. That's the prompt!

And you don't even need to go that far!
Why waste your words and typing fingers, just go for it super-brief with:

LinkedIn post for today

And...here it is:

With those few words I've got a pretty inspiring response.

  • It's got the earnest, open tone.
  • The bland relatable work-bound troubles: 'blockers' everyone!
  • Hope for the future: 'moving in the right direction'
  • And the Friday thoughts hashtag. I prompted on a Saturday though not Friday, bad AI!

🤷‍♂️ You're using AI all wrong! But so what?

What's the harm though, this is only LinkedIn, which everyone knows is cringe.

Why not just prompt and post?

  • Fake it 'til you make it culture
  • Outputs over outcomes.
  • Pump up those rookie numbers and spend those night-time hours agonising over your LinkedIn analytics for the week, if that's what you're looking for.

‼️Three things though:

🙊 Your voice

You're losing it.
Not literally, but your voice is the very thing that sets you apart in the world.
The whole tableau of human existence, 14 billion years leading up to this point.
Your thoughts, your experiences, your words.
You.
Replaced with a super efficient, post-making machine that never argues nor thinks.
And is, yes, it can be, somewhat cringe.

🧠 Critical Thinking = good

Wrestling with ideas in the dark.
Carving out reasoning through research and reading.
This is the brain equivalent of an 'ass-to-the-grass' squat.
It is hard but it is good for you!
Replacing all that good energy with 'gimme post' has a negative effect on us. Apparently.

🥴 You're using it wrong!

If you had an amazing, world-changing tool at your disposal, wouldn't you want to know how best to use the thing?
The hallowed 'best practice'?
Well, prompting, 'LinkedIn post today' is not in the instruction manual.

Yes, this is essentially a RTFM post!

Let's look at some different methodologies for using GenAI for writing today.

👩‍✈️AI as Autopilot

This is the minimal prompt, the least amount of work for the greatest number of words.
You type in orders. Get results. Just as I did above.

Just post and move on with your day. This works.
ChatGPT today, using a laconic prompt on GPT-4o, is actually very good at this.
Taking this further though, of course, this is not just about LinkedIn, this is literally anything you write!
Emails, posts, reviews, responses, blogs, even whole works of fiction.
The AI is sat there in the palm of your hand offering to do all of this for you with the least amount of effort or input on your part.

Sounds marvellous! What's the downside?

Everything comes with the same tone and feel, erasing your quirks, nuances, and charisma.

The things that make you you are bleached out and replaced but the shiny, ever-humble, ever-hopeful tone of an NPC.

That's the slop, and it doesn't take too many 'autopilot', minimal pieces of writing from you for it to be obvious.
That risks a lack of credibility, a lack of real engagement, and some very real cringe!
If everyone is just posting these overly long, overly polished, zero rizz posts, why bother reading them?

Remember, AI does not think. It produces outputs for you.

You are the one that thinking and feeling, with a history and a life of experiences to draw on. Why sanitise that part of yourself, at least, don't do it entirely!

This is autopilot use of GenAI, minimal effort.
Prompt and post.

Pro

  • Easy
  • Quick
  • You only need to be half-awake to harvest engagement

Con

  • Sloppy NPC voiced insipid posts
  • Washed-out online persona, 2025 version of too much filter on insta

Now let's look at some other approaches

📝 AI as Editor

You write. AI reviews.
You write the whole piece, then use GenAI as an overpowered spell-checker.

With this approach, you come up with the ideas, think it through and write the whole piece.
Not just first draft, really get it close to finished.
Then post the whole thing into the prompt and ask for a review.
GenAI will come up with a few suggestions, but, unless you ask it to, it will not rewrite the piece.

Pro

  • It is you, your thoughts and words. Just using AI to polish up a few things. Make a few suggestions here and there. A bit like a super over-powered spellchecker.
  • You've experienced the writing process from idea to full draft. An invaluable skill to master.

Con

  • Yes, you've just taken this wonderful new tool, and treated it like a spell-checker.
  • Possibly failing to benefit from the wonders of AI.
    Sure the words are spelt correctly, and they are yours, but you've blocked off opening up the possible worlds that AI has the key to!

👯‍♂️AI as Co-author

A more balanced approach
You sketch out the first draft, then collaborate with AI

In the context of writing a blog, an email, or a birthday invite; using GenAI like a co-author or pair programmer, of sorts. You work alongside AI to write the piece, but you both write it.

Example:

  • Markdown file one side of the screen, AI UI on the other.

  • I need a post about how Severance Season 2 was a huge disappointment (come on, it was).

  • I write the first draft to get all my ideas down.

  • Read through it then I ask ChatGPT to write the same thing.

    This is the interesting part: how much/early to prompt?

    • Too little and it might be just slop.
    • Too much and I might add in my own biases and miss the opportunity to uncover something that I hadn't thought about.

  • With a pretty comprehensive prompt, a few seconds later I end up with a piece.

  • Now to compare them.

  • Adapt. Remake. Remodel. As you see fit.

Pro

  • This is much more like 'best practice'! Using AI not to take over the writing process but to provide an alternative take.
  • Co-authoring can be highly rewarding, uncovering different facts and perspectives as AI trawls through trained data, websites, and reddit posts to collate what others have to say on the matter.
  • The point is:

**You've struggled with the initial process of creation, stared down the blank page and forged ahead in the darkness. Once you have breathed life into the piece, then you reach for AI.

  • You keep your voice, you are exposed to a different draft.

Con

  • The question here then is, 'how much to keep'?
  • If you scrap your first draft, stir in a huge spoonful of the slop, it might overpower your takes and your writing ends up on autopilot.
  • Resisting the urge to copypasta - that's the challenge!

🧚‍♀️ AI as Muse

You throw ideas into the prompt. AI throws them back. And then some!
The GenAI version of Bowie's cut-up technique

  • Use the AI prompt box not to write the piece, but as the catalyst for ideas of what to write.
  • Throw some ideas at it, make it the whiteboard, the spring-board, or the punchbag.
  • Formalise the ideas for the piece in your head, you're the one with the actual, thinking brain remember, then put the words on the page.

Pro

  • Your words, your ideas, just more!
  • Can't speak for him (obvs) but pretty certain Bowie would've loved this!

Con

  • Again, how much of you is in the final piece.

Summary

Given the ease at which GenAI can already produce whole rafts of the written word with very little input, I wanted to try to address some practical ways to interact with this new, amazing tool.
To define how to interact with the prompt box and encourage myself, and others, to keep on writing rather than becoming reliant.
Admittedly, some of the definitions are a little blurred at the edges.

Co-author, autopilot and editor are really just about the length of prompt and the amount you copy.

However, I find thinking about how to use GenAI, its practical application in everyday life, is an intriguing process in itself. Hence, this!

What approach did I take with this post and practical observations of using ChatGPT?

Here's how I wrote this piece:

1. I came up with the initial idea of trying to define methods of writing with ChatGPT
2. I originally had three approaches; autopilot, peer and reviewer.
3. I sketched out a rough first draft around 800 words.
3. I posted this to the 4o prompt and asked for thoughts and suggestions.
4. ChatGPT replied within the boundaries I provided; it didn't produce a full alternative draft but did rewrite some sections, renamed the approaches.
5. Most interesting of all, I think, was that it took my three approaches, and suggested one of its own. It called it 'meta', I've named it muse; using AI as a catalyst for ideas in the creation phase.
  • Prompt and post?
  • Hand-crafted artisanal human-only content?
  • Somewhere in between?

Thinking about the application of GenAI is a fascinating subject.
This is my first sally into that field.

Thoughts?

Joe