Just this morning I was reading a Bo Sacks article about publishers who use AI to make their writing more SEO-friendly, and I thought, doggone it, why don’t you use AI to make your writing more reader-friendly!
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how little publishers have done to improve the online reading experience. It’s a topic I take up briefly in the latest Krehbiel Letter, but I’d like to expand on the idea a bit today.
Think about your typical online reading experience. It’s usually a sea of words. Some authors will do you the favor of writing short sentences in short paragraphs, providing subheads, bullet points, and that sort of thing. But that’s about the best you get in making the text more readable.
On the other side of the equation, websites are happy to distract you from your reading with ads and pop-ups and all sorts of things. On some sites, especially on mobile, it’s nearly impossible to read an article.
I’m sure you’ve browsed one of those “Idiot’s Guide” style of books. They do a fair amount to make reading easier. They have pull quotes and summaries and definitions and lots of interesting things. I’ve discussed this before, so I won’t dwell on that.
Today I want to talk about using AI to improve the reading experience.
So imagine a publisher has an API connection to ChatGPT, or any one of those magical things out there. And then think about things a reader might want.
Here are some ideas I came up with.
- A summary of the article
- A definition of a word
- An elaboration on a concept,
- An answer to a question raised by the article
- A second opinion
Then, being a sensible fellow, I asked ChatGPT, first, are all those things possible (they are), and second, what else could be done?
ChatGPT recommended …
- Personalize the reading experience by recommending related articles or providing tailored content based on a reader’s interests or reading history.
- Language translation.
Will publishers step up to the plate and use technology to improve the online reading experience?
