Using an AI/LLM as a Prose Editor (Not a Generator!)

I have started giving GPT some of my own sentences I am unhappy with in prose and asking for it to repeat it in a more “active voice”. I do not paste it into my writing — I read the results and edit my original sentences as I wish, if I wish.

I believe that this process will likely find me reaching out to GPT less and less as I become more familiar with the writing style I am seeking. I think methods like this will become more popular with writers. To use it as a tool and not a generator.

I decided to show an example of this in action. I pulled an example paragraph from one of my older posts, here:

Plastic is everywhere these days — it is an unavoidable fact of life. You put your leftovers in Tupperware, you use a plastic ladle to serve your soup, and you even use plastic cups for your hot coffee. You then clean these out using plastic scrub brushes and other such utensils. We often think about what goes into our food, but how often do we consider what our food goes into?

I then used our application that we use to act as a communication tool against the (currently) OpenAI API.

[16:17:05] jeremy:~ $ thyme -model gpt4 -p active_voice -a "Plastic is everywhere these days - \
it is an unavoidable fact of life. \
You put your leftovers in Tupperware,  \ 
you use a plastic ladle to serve your soup, \
and you even use plastic cups for your hot coffee. \
You then clean these out using plastic scrub brushes \
and other such utensils. \
We often think about what goes into our food, \
but how often do we consider what our food goes into?"

The response:

Plastic pervades our daily lives — we cannot avoid encountering it. We store our leftovers in Tupperware, serve soup with a plastic ladle, and drink hot coffee from plastic cups. We clean all these items with plastic scrub brushes and similar utensils. We often contemplate the ingredients of our food, but how frequently do we ponder the materials that hold our food?

Upon reflecting on the differences I would probably change my paragraph a little bit. I would take some of what the LLM offered but take some personal liberty. Below I show what I would change, with the new changes in bold:

Plastic is everywhere these days — it is an unavoidable fact of life. We store food in Tupperware, have soups with plastic ladles, and drink hot beverages from plastic cups. We then clean these out using plastic scrub brushes and other such utensils. We often think about what goes into our food, but how often do we consider what our food goes into?

I think using AI/LLMs as a tool like this will become more popular with writers.

I do fear a world where generated spam clogs the world of literature. I do think using these tools to aid us in tasks rather than doing tasks for is the way to go.