AI and the rise of the Oxford comma.

OK, I'm opening this week with the fact that I have a PhD in Superconductivity, a science PhD. At school I failed English O level on 3 occasions, the best I scored was a "D".

The reason I tell you this is twofold. First, my English is crap, second, I was good at science and problem solving, I am not stupid. If you want to be a programmer you can get away with being piss-poor at English. Your clients may despair at some of your documentation, but in general, if you can solve problems, and have a logical mind, you're good to go. For me, this has kept me in work for more than a quarter of a century.

Recently AI has come along and like many I have been using it to help with the coding. Why spend a couple of hours or even days, writing code when you have chatGPT, CoPilot or something similar do it for you? All you have to do is ask the AI to write some code and bingo you are in business. What I have come to see is that the better you are at asking for something, the better the results you get. If you are vague, or unclear, the response from chatGPT is going to be vague and unclear. We still come back to one of the oldest formulas in our business

shit in = shit out

and with AI and Large language models (LLMs) it is no different.

This got me thinking about authors and writers in general. There is a bit of a panic out there that the AI is going to see the end of traditional writing. Amazon is limiting "publishers" to 3 books a day! No human can write 3 books a day, many take years to write a single book. The creative process can be staggeringly elusive. Now, with AI, we simply ask "the machine" to write us a book. I have used it to create a demo physics course, the results were really impressive.

If you don't know how to ask though, you are going to get the wrong answer. The way we ask a question is to write it, often in English. Students of the English language, those with a degree, and those who teach English now have a superpower that often evades many of us mere mortals. Although they may not know it yet, your English writer can do the following,

They can write clear and effective AI prompts. This is probably the number 1 superpower. If you can do this well, then you are the one-eyed man in the land of the blind. Understanding subtleties in language and being able to write clear, concise prompts is crucial for eliciting accurate and relevant responses from AI systems. I am still crap at this, my wife on the other hand (BA in English), is brilliant - yes, I do get my wife to help write prompts.

Creating Conversational AI. I think this is going to be massive over the next 2 -3 years. Those who excel in English can design more natural, engaging, and effective conversational agents.

Ensuring Accurate Translation and Localization. Sadly, I think that translators are out of a job, but there will be the need for accurate English from the AI translations.

Quality Control in AI Outputs. Understanding complex grammar and punctuation, like the Oxford comma, ensures clarity and precision in communication. It was the Oxford comma that gave me the idea for this post, here are some examples taken from this site https://www.thesaurus.com/e/grammar/s/serial-comma/#do-you-call-it-the-serial-comma-or-the-oxford-comma,

“Bring hot glue, an icepick and a hairnet.” and “Bring hot glue, an icepick, and a hairnet.”

"Catherine holding her daughter and the Queen." and "Catherine holding her daughter, and the Queen."

First off, I don't know the difference between these, (just a gentle reminder that I am Dr Bry ;-) ), but to my wife, there is a difference. She tried to explain, but the first one is still beyond me. In a prompt, there is a difference. The LLM sees them differently.

Legal and Ethical Compliance. English is important in everyday life today. Understanding the nuances of language is going to be vital in ensuring AI systems comply with legal standards and ethical guidelines, particularly when dealing with sensitive or regulated information.

And on and on we could go. (I'm sure you're not supposed to start a sentence with "And", oh well, let's hide behind that PhD one final time.) The list above are some of the issues that spring to mind when attempting to write prompts for the LLM. These came after a very brief discussion with my wife. I am sure there are loads more. I know there are loads, I got chatGPT to generate a list of 25 and only 2 of mine were on the list!

This means that in the world of commerce, my wife (English BA) and those like her are now very valuable assets. Or they soon will be.

To all those authors, journalists, copywriters, screenwriters, editors, bloggers, creatives, and those with an English degree, out there who fear the rise of AI, I say fear not. In the coming years, yours is the Earth and everything that's in it. Enjoy it while it lasts and make sure you get paid your worth.

To all you CEOs and business leaders, keep your family close and your English grads closer!

Bryan
ps. Once again this one is written by a human, me. It was not edited by anyone with any talent for English, so if it is shit then that is on me and not the AI or those possessing a BA in English.

pps. I past my English GCSE at the age of 37. If at first...