Using ChatGPT for Technical Writing // ChatGPT Demo

Summary

The video script explores the potential of ChatGPT as a tool for technical writers. It highlights how ChatGPT can aid in research, content outline generation, and technical editing, significantly streamlining the writing process. However, it also acknowledges the limitations of ChatGPT, such as its inability to write original content, the risk of technical inaccuracy, and potential outdated information. The script emphasizes that while ChatGPT can automate certain aspects of technical writing, the field will continue to evolve, requiring writers to adapt and develop new skills to remain relevant. Overall, it presents a balanced perspective on the transformative impact of AI tools like ChatGPT on the technical writing industry.

Takeaways

• 🤖 ChatGPT can be a useful tool for technical writers to quickly gather information and research a topic they need to write about.
• 📝 ChatGPT can help technical writers generate a comprehensive content outline for a project, which can save time and effort.
• ✍️ ChatGPT has the potential to assist with maintaining voice and tone consistency across documentation, especially for projects with multiple contributors.
• 🚫 ChatGPT cannot currently write original content on its own; it relies on existing information to generate responses.
• ⚠️ There is a risk of ChatGPT providing technically inaccurate or outdated information, so verification and critical analysis are essential.
• 🔄 Certain technical writing roles and tasks have already been automated, and this trend is likely to continue with tools like ChatGPT.
• 💻 Technical writers need to adapt and upskill to stay relevant as the industry evolves with the introduction of AI and automation.
• 🎯 ChatGPT can automate some repetitive tasks, allowing technical writers to focus on more strategic and creative projects.
• 🤔 Adopting a cautiously optimistic approach towards AI tools like ChatGPT can help technical writers better integrate them into their workflow.
• 🌐 The future of technical writing may involve a combination of human expertise and AI assistance, with the potential to enhance and transform the documentation process.

Q & A

How does ChatGPT assist in the initial research phase of a technical writing project?

ChatGPT helps speed up the initial research by providing a quick, beginner-level introduction to topics, such as change data capture, without the bias of product-driven content, offering a solid starting point for further investigation.

Why might someone prefer using ChatGPT over traditional Google searches for technical research?

ChatGPT can parse through numerous articles to provide unbiased, beginner-level information quickly, unlike Google searches that may return product-driven or overly complex articles.

Can ChatGPT generate a content outline for technical documentation?

Yes, ChatGPT can generate content outlines by collating information across various sources, providing a solid first draft that reflects a broader industry perspective.

How does ChatGPT maintain voice and tone consistency in documentation?

ChatGPT can edit content to make it more user-friendly and consistent with a specific style guide, helping maintain a uniform voice and tone across documentation.

What are the limitations of using ChatGPT for writing original content?

ChatGPT cannot write original content on topics that do not already have existing information on the internet, as it relies on pre-existing content to generate responses.

Why is technical accuracy a concern when using ChatGPT for technical documentation?

ChatGPT may confidently provide technically inaccurate information, requiring careful review and validation to ensure the content's accuracy and reliability.

How up-to-date is the information model of ChatGPT?

As of the last check, ChatGPT's information model might be outdated, being trained on data available up until 2021, and may not include the most recent content published.

What impact could AI tools like ChatGPT have on the technical writing industry?

AI tools might automate certain aspects of technical writing, evolving the industry and possibly reducing the demand for certain types of manual writing tasks.

How can technical writers remain relevant in an industry increasingly influenced by AI?

Staying aware of industry trends, embracing adaptability, and continuously upgrading skills can help technical writers stay relevant and be part of the evolving field.

What aspects of technical writing does the speaker anticipate AI will automate?

The speaker anticipates AI will automate tasks like creating content outlines, maintaining documentation consistency, and possibly some aspects of technical editing.

Outlines

00:00

🤖 Utilizing ChatGPT for Technical Writing

The speaker shares their experience using ChatGPT to enhance their technical writing process. They highlight ChatGPT's utility in speeding up research and understanding complex topics like change data capture, emphasizing its ability to provide quick, unbiased, and beginner-friendly explanations compared to traditional Google searches and product-driven articles. The speaker appreciates ChatGPT for generating comprehensive content outlines, such as for a project on managing airbag documentation, which saves time and incorporates a broad perspective. ChatGPT's role is seen as a complement to traditional research methods, not a replacement, particularly in the early stages of a writing project.

05:02

📝 ChatGPT's Impact on Documentation Consistency and Editing

This paragraph outlines how ChatGPT aids in maintaining consistency in documentation's voice and tone, especially in open-source projects with multiple contributors. The speaker presents a case where ChatGPT improved a verbose and technically complex document section, making it more user-friendly, though it still required adjustments for technical accuracy and best practices. ChatGPT is lauded for its potential to unify documentation written by diverse contributors, highlighting the importance of editing software in achieving a cohesive voice across all documentation. However, the speaker notes the necessity of further review for technical accuracy before finalizing the content.

10:05

🚀 Prospects and Limitations of ChatGPT in Technical Writing

The speaker reflects on ChatGPT's limitations, including its inability to generate original content on novel topics, potential inaccuracies, and reliance on outdated information. Despite these drawbacks, the speaker is optimistic about ChatGPT's role in evolving technical writing practices. They discuss the broader impact of automation on the field, suggesting that adaptability and awareness are crucial for technical writers to remain relevant. The speaker anticipates that ChatGPT will automate mundane tasks, allowing them to focus on strategic and creative aspects of their work. The video concludes with a call for embracing new tools to enhance the documentation process.

Keywords

💡ChatGPT

ChatGPT is an AI language model developed by OpenAI. It is a conversational AI assistant that can engage in human-like dialogue, answer questions, and assist with various tasks. In the video, the speaker discusses using ChatGPT as a tool to aid in technical writing tasks, such as researching topics, generating content outlines, and editing content for consistency.

💡Technical Writing

Technical writing refers to the process of creating documentation, manuals, and other written content that explains technical subjects or processes. In the video, the speaker discusses their work as a technical writer and explores how ChatGPT can be used to streamline various aspects of the technical writing process, such as gathering information, generating outlines, and maintaining consistent tone and voice across documentation.

💡Research

Research involves the process of gathering information and knowledge about a specific topic or subject. In the context of technical writing, research is crucial for understanding the subject matter that a writer needs to document. The speaker highlights how ChatGPT can be useful for quickly researching and learning about topics like change data capture, providing a starting point for technical writers to understand the concepts they need to cover.

💡Content Outline

A content outline is a structured overview of the topics and subtopics that a piece of content will cover. In technical writing, creating a comprehensive outline is an essential step before writing the actual documentation. The speaker explains how ChatGPT can be used to generate a draft content outline for a topic like "Managing Airbyte," which can save time and serve as a solid starting point for further refinement by subject matter experts and stakeholders.

💡Voice and Tone

Voice and tone refer to the style, personality, and overall feel of written content. In technical writing, maintaining a consistent voice and tone across all documentation is essential for providing a cohesive user experience. The speaker discusses how ChatGPT can be used to edit and refine existing content, improving its clarity, readability, and alignment with the desired voice and tone, especially when multiple contributors are involved in writing documentation.

💡Original Content

Original content refers to written material that is created from scratch, without relying on or repurposing existing content. The speaker highlights a limitation of ChatGPT, which is that it cannot create truly original content from scratch. ChatGPT's responses are generated based on the vast amount of data it has been trained on, so it requires some existing content to work with and cannot produce documentation for entirely new, undocumented concepts or features.

💡Technical Accuracy

Technical accuracy refers to the correctness and precision of information presented in technical documentation. The speaker cautions that while ChatGPT can generate content that reads well, there is a risk of technical inaccuracies due to the AI's limitations in understanding specialized topics. The speaker emphasizes the importance of verifying the technical accuracy of ChatGPT's output by consulting with subject matter experts and comparing it to existing accurate documentation.

💡Information Model

An information model refers to the data or knowledge base that an AI system has been trained on. The speaker notes that ChatGPT's information model may be outdated, as it was trained on data that was available up to a certain point in time, potentially missing newer information published after that cutoff date. This limitation means that ChatGPT's responses may not always reflect the most up-to-date information on a given topic.

💡Automation

Automation refers to the process of using technology to perform tasks or processes with minimal human intervention. In the context of the video, the speaker discusses how various aspects of technical writing have already been automated by tools and technologies, and how ChatGPT may further automate certain tasks within the technical writing process. The speaker acknowledges that automation will likely continue to transform the field, requiring technical writers to adapt and acquire new skills.

💡Adaptability

Adaptability refers to the ability to adjust to changing circumstances or new situations. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of adaptability for technical writers to maintain long-term careers in the field. As new tools and technologies, like ChatGPT, continue to disrupt and automate parts of the technical writing process, writers must be open to change and willing to adapt their skills and knowledge to stay relevant in the evolving industry.

Highlights

I have found that chat GPT can make the process of learning and researching a topic really quick for me as a technical writer.

Chat GPT gives an excellent starting point for me as a writer to learn about a topic that I'm supposed to write about, providing a beginner-level introduction that is unbiased from a product perspective.

Chat GPT can be helpful for coming up with a content outline, collating information from various sources to provide a customized outline in a short time.

Chat GPT can assist in maintaining voice and tone consistency across documentation, especially in an open-source company with many contributors.

Chat GPT cannot write original content for topics that do not have existing content available on the internet.

Chat GPT can give inaccurate or outdated information, so its responses need to be critically evaluated for technical accuracy.

Some technical writing roles will be automated, but the field will continue to evolve, and technical writers need to adapt by keeping up with trends and developing new skills.

Automation has already transformed certain aspects of technical writing, such as documentation layout, translation, UI help, and release notes.

Awareness and adaptability are key to a long-term career in technical writing, as the industry will continue to change with the introduction of AI tools.

Chat GPT can automate parts of the technical writing process, allowing technical writers to focus on strategic and creative projects.

Transcripts

I have been playing around with chat GPT

for a couple of weeks now to see if I

can use it as a tool in my technical

writing task and I have some interesting

insights to share with you about the

things that Chad GPT can help a

technical writer with and things that we

absolutely should not rely on chat GPT

to do and if you don't know what chat

gbt is just Google it it has been all

over the Internet for about a month now

so information about it is very easy to

find okay let's jump into it the first

task that I do when starting a new

project is to learn and research and

study the topic that I'm writing about

and I've found that chat GPT can make

that process really really quick for me

for example let's say I'm writing about

change data capture which is an

important Concept in data integration so

I can ask chat TPT to help me understand

change data capture so now it has given

me this write-up about what change data

capture is this is an excellent starting

point for me as a writer to learn about

a topic that I'm supposed to write about

so if I was going about this in my

regular way without chat GPT I would

just Google it let's ask Google the same

question what else change data capture

and then we have all these articles but

the problem with the articles on Google

is that they are written mostly by

organizations who have products to sell

for example we have this article from

stream and then we have this article

from five Tran and Rivery and rocket set

and Microsoft and all of these will have

information about what is change data

capture but it will have information

about how change data capture works with

their product we also have this article

from Wikipedia which you would think was

more helpful than like the product

driven articles but then with the

problem with articles on Wikipedia or

similar websites is that

they don't give you the beginner level

information this article directly

transferred to the methodology of CDC

and that's not what I want to learn now

because I'm not there yet you know what

I mean so for someone like me who just

wants to get a sense of what changed

data capture is chat GPT actually does a

fantastic job of going through all the

Articles parsing through all the

technical content and then figuring out

bits and pieces of it that serve my

purpose and it seems to be unbiased

information because it is not pertaining

to a particular product so this is a

very beginner level introduction to

change data capture that is unbiased

from a product perspective I think it is

an excellent tool to complement a Google

search when you're starting a new

technical writing project and

researching the topic you're writing

about I don't think it can completely

replace Google just yet and I'll talk

about that later in this video but I do

think this is a tool that is very

helpful for the research and self-study

part of the technical writing process

the second technical writing task that I

think Chad GPT can be very helpful with

is coming up with a Content outline so

for example the project I'm working on

right now for work for real is the

managing air by documentation so I can

ask

try GPT to give me a list of topics that

I should include in the managing airbag

section of our documentation it's

telling us to set up and configure

airbag connectors Fair creating and

managing data integration Pipelines

okay monitoring and troubleshooting the

pipelines managing schedules and

triggers managing data quality and

transformation managing access and

security managing performance and

scalability this is literally what I

would have come up with if I was writing

the outline for that section and

moreover it's not just one person's or

one team's perspective on the content on

the topics that people are looking for

it's literally trained on a bunch of

data integration platforms and it

collated all that information and

processed all that information to put

together an outline and customized it

for air byte which is again something I

would have done right I always read

competitor documents or documents from

Allied products in the data ecosystem to

get insight into what topics are people

discussing and asking questions about so

it basically did all that work and gave

it to me in like a minute or two this is

a huge Time Saver I would not rely on

this I would take this as the first

draft of the outline and then I would

take it to the engineering team and see

this team and the support teams and the

go to market teams and I would get their

input and rework the outline to make

sure we cover all the content that we

need for the users but this is a solid

first step in the process and then the

final task that I think chat GPT is very

very helpful for is maintaining voice

and tone consistency across

documentation and I have an example for

that this is one of our important

documents for airbags it's the postgres

source connector documentation and post

address is a very important connector

for us so we want to make sure that all

the content here is as polished as it

can be the problem with that is that we

are an open source company which means

people edit documentation and I don't

always know about it so we had someone

add this section to the documentation

and because I did not know about it I

didn't edit it so it does not follow our

style guide it is a little too verbose

it is a little too engineering speak and

it can be edited to make it more user

friendly so what I'm going to do I'm not

even going to copy paste the section all

I'm going to do is copy the link I'm

going to ask

Chad GPD

improve

the content and just give it the link

yeah this is a much more user-friendly

origin of the content but

it's still not following the technical

writing best practices like it's still

using passive voice this is still a big

Improvement on the content that we have

now and that's what I meant by it can

help us standardize the voice and tone

of the documentation across all docs

especially because we as an open source

company has so many contributors and

everyone has a different facility with

language some of our contributors do not

have English as their first language so

I think this is just a very good tool to

make sure that the documentation sounds

as if it's written by one person because

it will be edited by one software which

is chat GPT but definitely saying chat

GPT is a very interesting and helpful

tool to use in the technical editing

part of the technical writing process I

would not use this content as it is

though because I need to check if it

maintained the technical accuracy of the

original content or did it just like

word Smith the content but it lost the

technical accuracy of the original

content I'll check this response for our

technical accuracy I'll have the

engineer who wrote the original content

check it for a technical accuracy and

then I would incorporate it in her

documentation to summarize the three

tasks that I think chat GPT can help

Tech writers with are information

gathering and research content outline

generation and content checklist and

then technical editing let's now chat

about the drawbacks of chat GPD the

first drawback of chai triputi is that

it cannot write original content for you

the way chat TPT works is that parses

the internet and collects all the

information about the topic that you ask

about and it puts that information

through its algorithms and its AI

systems and generates a response for you

the prerequisite for that process to

happen is existing content right it

needs content and to feed itself and to

train itself on to generate the response

so if your engineering team is working

on a brand new feature that does not

exist yet and hence there is no content

on the internet about it chat GPT cannot

provide content for you you would have

to give it at least the first draft that

it can improve upon so that's the first

drawback of charge GPT is that as of now

it cannot write original content for you

the second drawback of chatgpt is that

you cannot rely on the content because

it might be technically inaccurate

that's one of the biggest criticisms of

chat GPT I have seen on the internet so

far is that it is very good at giving

absolutely wrong information very

confidently for example I asked chat GPT

how do you set up a descript connector

with airpipe and it gave me this big

write-up like a very step-by-step

procedure on how to set up a descript

connector with air byte we don't have a

descript connector for everybody yet so

all this information if you'll just look

at it it seems very valid and it will be

true if we ever develop a connector for

airpod but that's what I mean this is

all the inaccurate information about a

connector that does not exist but the

way it presents it so confidently it

makes you feel like it's giving you the

right information so you have to be very

very critical about the information that

it gives you and you have to do your due

diligence on that information and then

the third drawback of chat GPT is that

it's information model is pretty

outdated that might have changed

recently I need to check on that the

last time I checked chat GPT was trained

on information that was available

either before or up until 2021 so all

the new information that has been

published in 2022 has not been fed into

its information model yet so the

responses that you get from chat GPT

might have outdated information because

it does not have the information that

was published in 2022. those are the

three drawbacks of strategypt is that it

cannot write original content or it

tries to write original content which is

like absolute it can give you

inaccurate information and the

information might be outdated so having

run those experiments do I think

technical writing roles are at risk

because of chat GPT yes and no it

depends on what role we are talking

about I think some technical writing

roles will be automated but that has

always been true technical writing is an

evolving feel and some other part of it

is always up for disruption and

automation think about how much

technology has already automated away

certain technical writing jobs for

example back in the day when

documentation used to be in the form of

print manuals there was a whole industry

and a whole set of people who

specialized in the page design the page

layout the page setting the printing of

those manuals that industry does not

exist in the same form that it did back

then most of it has moved to a web-based

form now a more recent example is that

in the field of translation I saw this

very insightful thread on Twitter that

talked about how AI destroyed the field

of translation years ago this is a

YouTube comment that says I spent

Decades of My Life Learning foreign

languages only to see the translation

industry destroyed by AI inferiority of

the machine translations a few years

back did not stop the destruction of the

industry the machine translation costs

nothing and so the price for All

translation Came Crashing Down because

the Bottom Feeders used machine

translation most clients the bottom of

the pyramid that kept the industry going

did not care about the quality of the

translation if we expect that clients

pricing human made products will save

Industries we are being very delusional

the vast majority of clients will go for

the process that costs less it reminds

me of the better faster cheaper

framework which basically states that in

a capitalist society when somebody is

deciding to pay for something they can

choose to get something done either

better faster or cheaper you can pick

two but not three granted humans can

make things better but AI can make

things cheaper and faster and when you

give that option to companies who just

want document temptation to exist they

don't care about like the best

documentation their product can have

they just want documentation so they

wouldn't have to think about it like

just good enough documentation

we might see a day when AI might be able

to do that for us automation has already

taken over past that technical writers

were known for tasks like writing UI

help we have tools for that now writing

release notes again automated tools

exist even technical editing to some

extent with tools like grammarly I do

think this trend will continue where

parts of the technical writing process

will be automated and if that happens

technical writing as an industry the way

we see it now will evolve to a different

form that we will have to adapt to in my

experience a key to a long-term career

in technical writing is awareness and

adaptability keep up with the trends be

very open-it about where the industry is

going what tools are coming up what are

the people doing what a company is

willing to spend money on and then level

up your skill set and your experience to

make sure that you will be part of the

next evolution of the field and not left

behind the near future how I see this

personally affecting my career is that I

think it will automate some parts of my

technical writing process and that's

good because it means that I don't have

to spend time on the task that I don't

like and then I can focus on like the

big picture strategic creative projects

overall I'm very excited about using

chat GPT and other tools in my everyday

technical writing tasks and I'm

cautiously optimistic about the ways in

which these tools can transform the

field of documentation and technical

writing that's all for this video I hope

this was interesting and I'll see you in

the next one