What Happens When Computers Can Write like Humans?

An increasing amount of written communication is being created by artificial intelligence. A professor of communication discusses the implications.

A young woman looks at her phone

Start an email with “I hope” and before you can type the next word, the program will suggest you complete it with “all is well.” You may not have realized it, but this is AI-generated text.

In the past several years, this technology has advanced beyond completing sentences in emails: It can now respond to others’ emails, and write essays, hip-hop songs, public health messages, and much more. What’s more, it can sometimes be even more effective than humans at conveying certain messages.

In this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything, Jeff Hancock, a professor of communication at Stanford, explores this phenomenon and its positive and negative implications for how we communicate and how we understand our interactions with one another and the world. Learn more with Hancock and host Stanford Professor Russ Altman.

 

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