Q&A: Do you use LLMs at all in the writing process?

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On most pieces, no LLM in the process at all.

Occasionally, I’ll struggle to find the right phrasing for something, and I’ll write the phrase clunkily, put tags around it, and then dump it into an LLM and ask it to suggest a rephrasing of the tagged phrase. (It sometimes takes a bit of back-and-forth with the LLM to find the rephrasing that feels right.)

This is particularly helpful when I’m looking to phrase a wordy idea more simply, or looking for synonyms that convey a particular kind of tone. It feels kind of like the modern version of a thesaurus lookup.

Additionally, if I’m writing something that feels like it may attract some disagreement, I’ll dump it into an LLM and ask it to predict any areas of disagreement. In my experience, most disagreement turns out to be confusion, and LLMs can be helpful for identifying areas where the writing should be clarified.

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