What will my AI-enabled writing process be?
I’ve known for a while now that my website signup and login procedures have hack vulnerabilities. I’ve made the easier fixes over time but I kept balking at the big one because the concept of parameter binding intimidated me. Yesterday I went to CHAT-GPT and asked: “using PHP and MySQL write an injection proof login script.” It returned a working example instantly. I had to make a couple of quick and obvious modifications (it was assuming user_id and I was using email) but even then it didn’t work. Twenty minutes of error report reading and tinkering helped me realize I was using encrypted passwords while it wasn’t. The upshot? Twenty minutes versus I imagine maybe half a day’s coding and bug fixing which I might never have gotten around to because the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. CHAT-GPT overcame months of intimidation-based procrastination.
The other instance of CHAT-GPT enabled writing was sparked by a CSS layout I saw while reading more or less randomly online. The site had a screen consisting of 4 side-by-side Monopoly card-like buckets with rounded corners and drop shadows. Nice look. I know enough CSS to make that by hand but asked CHAT-GPT to do it for me: “write a cascading style sheet for a division with height 200px rounded corners and thin drop shadow.”
This came back.
<style>
/* Define the div with a height of 200px */
.my-div { height: 200px;
/* Add rounded corners */
border-radius: 10px;
/* Add a thin drop shadow */
box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); }
</style>
I spent a few minutes hand-editing that entry point and realized in the process that I wanted a more complete layout. After trying a couple of too vague requests, that produced style sheets that didn’t do what I wanted because I hadn’t precisely described what I wanted, I realized what I wanted and instead of formulating a request that would give me the code, I revised the original offer. I ended up with this.
After 10 fruitless minutes trying to revise the previous sentence for clarity and brevity I asked CHAT-GPT to do it for me. It gave me this:
After spending some time editing the entry point, I realized I needed a more comprehensive layout. My initial vague requests resulted in style sheets that didn’t meet my expectations due to lack of specificity. Eventually, I realized what I truly wanted and instead of making another request, I manually edited the first instance to achieve the desired outcome. Here’s the final result.
That still needs work, but I will end here by saying that I used CHAT-GPT to write code I revised and then revise prose I wrote. This, I’m beginning to realize, is the larval stage of my future writing process.