The Other Generative AIs...
(Grammarly)
Most of my access to Generative AIs is through OpenAI and its proprietary brethren (Microsoft, Google, Anthropic) of chat interfaces. This likely aligns well with the public perception of where the AI is - it’s with ChatGPT and CoPilot, right?
This is exemplified by an article I wrote that was recently highlighted by the Medium curation team:
ChatGPT and the Middlesex Fells Trail Analyzer | by Nate Combs | Jan, 2024 | AI Advances (medium.com)
The article is a roll-up of experiments written up on this Substack-of-mine and also builds upon earlier articles/experiments I wrote up on Medium. What is clear is that they exhibit an OpenAI/ChatGPT-centric view of Generative AI.
Yet I am keenly aware that Generative AI is rapidly tumbling into many new and established product lines, including Grammarly, the online writing assistant and grammar checker. Yes, I have a couple of articles that use ChatGPT to nod to Grammarly, for example:
How to use ChatGPT to edit creative text | by Nate Combs | Nov 2023 | Bootcamp (medium.com)
Yet these articles are more about understanding Generative AI and Large Language Models than about their applications. Grammarly is the real product, and I’ve been using their free version for a long time. I am a fan. I recently upgraded to their Premium version (no longer free). The Premium version offers Generative AI and other useful features not available in the free version.
I am still evaluating the Generative AI in Grammarly. Yet I don’t think it is as powerfully applied as what you can do using ChatGPT (or its peers) if you are willing to work with its ecosystem of tools and prompt design. For instance, consider some of what I did with working with writing styles:
How to use ChatGPT to rewrite creative text | by Nate Combs | Aug 2023 | Bootcamp (medium.com)
Nonetheless, the attraction of the Grammarly model is that it is simple to use and well integrated into the writer’s workflow - Figures 1 and 2 give a sense of how Grammarly fits Generative AI into a menu of options it offers to assist you with.
I am excited about where Grammarly and other products are going with Generative AI. Convenience and accessibility are virtues, especially when what you are doing is not only about the Generative AI.
