Many medical writers began asking this question when ChatGPT became accessible to consumers in November 2022. The first answer is that medical writers, along with almost everyone else, were already using artificial intelligence (AI) extensively on a daily basis and had been for years before the launch of consumer ChatGPT. Search engines (eg, Google, but also DuckDuckGo and other privacy-minded search engines), assistants (eg, Siri and Alexa), and autocomplete all use artificial intelligence. The difference is that ChatGPT offered the public their first taste of generative AI, that is, AI that generates content. Standalone GPTs, of which there are many, and AI integrated with software offer varying types of assistance, but some tasks generative AI can assist writers with include
- Content generation (the most obvious use)
- Writing assistance
- Transcription
- Data analysis
- Summary generation
Is generative AI uniformly proficient at each of these tasks? No. In some instances, just because you can use generative AI, doesn’t mean you should use generative AI. Generative AI has well-documented issues with bias and inaccuracy in its results, shortcomings that should concern any medical writer. And it is much better at generating plain language versus technical language. On another note, most of us in the medical communications field work under NDAs and professional ethical guidelines that limit or preclude the use of artificial intelligence, so it’s important to know the ethical guidelines for your profession, the rules of your clients and employers, and the intricacies of your contracts and NDAs/CDAs.
Damiana suggested this topic for our first mini blog about artificial intelligence, and I hope you, the reader, will offer your suggestions for topics for future mini blogs about artificial intelligence in the comments!
For those interested in learning how to use AI as a medical writer or editor, our artificial intelligence class launches June 26, 2024.
Want to keep in touch and receive our content?
Subscribe to the Evergreen Newsletter to receive the latest!
2 thoughts on “How Can Writers Use AI?”