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Hello! I hope this is the correct forum.

I use a known extension on my Chromebook called Grammarly. If you don't know what it is, it's basically an extension that helps with grammar and correct punctuation. Things like that. (But it has recently had an update that implements AI writing/rewriting ewww) 

I was wondering, does using this extension count as using AI to write my story? Sometimes I forget to add commas and forget to capitalize things, or spell a couple words wrong, or phrase things wrong, and it shows me what I did wrong. If it counts as cheating, I'll delete it. But I'll probably have a couple new SPAG errors. 

BY THE WAY! I do a lot of things fine by myself. I just use it to help spell words I keep misspelling, or whenever I forget to put a comma after and, but, so, etc. I DON'T use it to rewrite my work once it's done. 

Thanks!

It's probably ok. The definitions of AI are not clear cut. As long as it is only fixing typos and commas it is still your text. If it starts mergeing or separating sentences or replacing words that is where it starts to change the voice of the text, which is crossing a line.

I would still switch it off while writing, as automatic highlights/corrections can get in the way of creative flow.

Word processors already fix things like punctuation and spelling, and they recommend grammar changes. There is no need to use AI for that. I don't know much about Grammarly, but I believe it actually has a thing you can use to see if something likely written by AI.

To echo Fabrikant, if an AI/tool is generating your text, you're not writing it. The AI/tool is.

I think Grammarly is meant more for stuff like writing office emails, the suggestions it does have are pretty sterile in the first place and not at all ideal for prose.

Computer Science defines AI very broadly, and spell chekers are considered AI. But I get that what you are saying is that you won't need a language model for a spell check. The thing is that language models are great spell checkers and major wordprocessors are currently switching to use language models as spell checkers.

My take is it is really ok. They are good tools for that purpose so why not use them?

If used for this purpose I would use a prompt like this:

You are a copy editor. I will give you a manuscript. Your task is to fix spelling and punctuation. Do not change the style or voice of the text. Do now make corrections that could be construed as having an effect on the style. If such corrections should be necessary highlight the issues but do not implement changes yourself. Here is the text:

Fair, but I was using the term colloquially to refer to the major products out there (GPT, Copilot, Gemini, Grok, Pi, etc).

Using it for something putting code at the start of a paragraph because you don't feel like copying/pasting probably isn't a problem. I would be reluctant to let it actually take my text and make editing changes though, for fear that it will "think best" and change words. For all their utility, they can be dumb as bricks sometimes and completely ignore you. But I once had a page that wasn't working (code), and I asked an AI to tell me exactly where two pages differ in terms of the code on them (one was working and the other wasn't), and it found the error (smart quotes instead of regular quotes).

That last line of your prompt may be pushing the boundaries though. Maybe. I guess you're just asking the AI for advice there, but it seems perhaps a little sketch.

Those issues were real issues, but with good models (i.e. not grok) and a decent prompt that stuff shouldn't happen anymore. I use gemini quite extensively for work (both through the interface and via API) and as a spellchecker this type of prompt works for me reliably. The last sentence is there so that it doesn't try to fix my sentence fragments, where I want them.

I think the true patriotic CYS way is to boldly and confidently put your error-ridden story out onto the site and get torn apart by reviewers and just do better on your following stories :~)

It's like a rite of passage as a writer and as a human.

If you are using AI to spit your story back out all corrected, then are you really building those skills as a writer to learn proper spelling and grammar and flow that will eventually become second nature? Probably not.

This is actually an advantage of language models: in contrast to the good old spellcheck they are happy to explain the mistake.

We also have lots of people here willing to do the same. I know I'd rather have another human explain to me why things don't work. You're getting several different human explanations based on personal experiences in reviews as well - from other writers.

Of course, my stance on AI has always been clear. I will never favor it over clumsy, charming humanisms.

There's also the possibility that just reading an AI explanation is like only working out the example problems in the math classroom. If you're not struggling through the homework, you're going to struggle during the test.

This is a nice example. AI is a very powerful tool. I use it frequently to do real math and it has dramatically increased my productivity. But I would never ask AI to just solve my problem. People need to learn how to use AI right. We should not outsource creative tasks to computers, but we should outsource all stupid tasks (and finding typos is an example) so humans have more time to do the creative bits.

I don't see a reason why a spellcheck would count as AI.

As long as it's not writing out sentences, or modifying them in a major way, all is good imo.

The soul is important, not whether you're perfectly capable of spelling a word.