Welcome to episode 084 of the AI for Technical Writers podcast from the Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency. This podcast is targeted at IT professionals and technical writers. Subscribe today to never miss a single episode!

Today’s episode reviews a recent interview with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about the company's plans for AI, the controversial state of artificial general intelligence (AGI), and how the tech giant is going to use quantum computing and AI to change the world.

Hosts Daphne and Fred share their spirited analysis of this fresh interview with Microsoft's Nadella, including an examination of the potential dangers of AI adaptation, including training bias and adherence to core human values. They explain what technical writers and documentation specialists can do today to prepare for a world in which the optimal skillset is shifting.

"It will not be AI that takes away the job of a technical writer, but rather another technical writer with keep AI skills," said Robbins after hearing the interview.

The Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency is currently taking on new clients. We enjoy helping companies with their documentation and communications strategy and implementation. Contact us to learn about our reasonable rates and fast turnaround.

>> Read the original Nadella interview: https://tinyurl.com/3rhax9au

>> Read the Curt Robbins article "Why Large Language Models are Changing the World": https://tinyurl.com/bdfv63ca

>> Read the Robbins article "Understanding Anthropic: Rising Star in AI": https://tinyurl.com/46btw22z

>> Read the Robbins article "Comparing ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, & Grok": https://tinyurl.com/3zwttxhk

>> Read the Robbins article "AI Job Replacement Fears Are Good. Here's Why.": https://tinyurl.com/p5t27t7d

>> Join the LinkedIn group Technical Writing Success: https://tinyurl.com/mr28u7td

>> Subscribe to the Technical Writing Success podcast: https://tinyurl.com/uu9hpyzt

Welcome to episode 083 of the AI for Technical Writers podcast from the Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency. This podcast is targeted at IT professionals and technical writers. Subscribe today to never miss a single episode!

Today’s episode reviews a recent article by John Nosta entitled "Are LLMs Creepy?" that was published in Psychology Today on February 14.

Hosts Daphne and Fred share their spirited analysis of this fresh piece from Nosta and unpack its observations about the nature of intelligence and how humans work with machines like computers to do their jobs. They provide a basic definition of a large language model (LLM), how they are trained, and how technical writers can best leverage their advantages.

Wrote Nosta: "LLMs exist in this psychological gray zone. They aren’t human, yet they produce text that sounds deeply intelligent. They don’t think, yet they generate ideas that feel as though they were formed with intent. Their words have rhythm, emotion, and coherence, yet they lack the lived experience to anchor them in reality. This in-between state—more than a simple tool, less than a conscious mind—is what makes them feel strange."

The Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency is currently taking on new clients. We enjoy helping companies with their documentation and communications strategy and implementation. Contact us to learn about our reasonable rates and fast turnaround.

>> Read the original Nosta article: https://tinyurl.com/yevufjx8

>> Read the Curt Robbins article "Why Large Language Models are Changing the World": https://tinyurl.com/bdfv63ca

>> Read the Robbins article "Understanding Anthropic: Rising Star in AI": https://tinyurl.com/46btw22z

>> Read the Robbins article "Comparing ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, & Grok": https://tinyurl.com/3zwttxhk

>> Read the Robbins article "AI Job Replacement Fears Are Good. Here's Why.": https://tinyurl.com/p5t27t7d

>> Join the LinkedIn group Technical Writing Success: https://tinyurl.com/mr28u7td

>> Subscribe to the Technical Writing Success podcast: https://tinyurl.com/uu9hpyzt

Welcome to episode 082 of the AI for Technical Writers podcast from the Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency. This podcast is targeted at IT professionals and technical writers. Subscribe today to never miss a single episode!

Today’s episode reviews an article by senior technical writer Curt Robbins entitled "Chain of Thought Prompting: Enhancing AI Interactions for Technical Documentation" that was published on LinkedIn on February 13.

Hosts Daphne and Fred share their spirited analysis of this fresh article from Robbins and unpack its observations of how chain of thought (CoT) prompting with AI tools can improve results and help technical writers do their jobs better.

They explain how CoT prompting in AI works and why it is a critical evolutionary stage for AI tech and the way it is used by IT professionals.

Wrote Robbins: "Chain of thought (CoT) prompting has emerged as a new approach to interacting with artificial intelligence systems, offering particular value to IT professionals working intechnical writing and documentation. This sophisticated prompting technique encouragesAI models to break down complex reasoning processes into discrete, logical steps—much like how a student shows their work for a mathematical problem."

The Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency is currently taking on new clients. We enjoy helping companies with their documentation and communications strategy and implementation. Contact us to learn about our reasonable rates and fast turnaround.

>> Read the original article: https://tinyurl.com/6tak6v6k

>> Read the Curt Robbins article "Understanding Anthropic: Rising Star in AI": https://tinyurl.com/46btw22z

>> Read the Robbins article "Comparing ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, & Grok": https://tinyurl.com/3zwttxhk

>> Read the Robbins article "AI Job Replacement Fears Are Good. Here's Why.": https://tinyurl.com/p5t27t7d

>> Join the LinkedIn group Technical Writing Success: https://tinyurl.com/mr28u7td

>> Subscribe to the Technical Writing Success podcast: https://tinyurl.com/uu9hpyzt

Welcome to episode 081 of the AI for Technical Writers podcast from the Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency. This podcast is targeted at IT professionals and technical writers. Subscribe today to never miss a single episode!

Today’s episode reviews a blog article by Jason Wei and Denny Zhou at Google Research entitled "Language Models Perform Reasoning via Chain of Thought."

Hosts Daphne and Fred share their spirited analysis of this informative article and unpack its definition of chain of thought prompting in AI tools. They describe how technical writers must learn to converse with AI chatbots and that such skills are critical to fully leveraging the power of the tool.

Wrote the article: "Chain of thought reasoning allows models to decompose complex problems into intermediate steps that are solved individually. Moreover, the language-based nature of chain of thought makes it applicable to any task that a person could solve via language." 

The Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency is currently taking on new clients. We enjoy helping companies with their documentation and communications strategy and implementation. Contact us to learn about our reasonable rates and fast turnaround.

>> Read the Google Research article: https://tinyurl.com/mr3r8yr2

>> Read the Curt Robbins article "Understanding Anthropic: Rising Star in AI": https://tinyurl.com/46btw22z

>> Read the Robbins article "Comparing ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, & Grok": https://tinyurl.com/3zwttxhk

>> Read the Robbins article "AI Job Replacement Fears Are Good. Here's Why.": https://tinyurl.com/p5t27t7d

>> Join the LinkedIn group Technical Writing Success: https://tinyurl.com/mr28u7td

>> Subscribe to the Technical Writing Success podcast: https://tinyurl.com/uu9hpyzt

Welcome to episode 080 of the AI for Technical Writers podcast from the Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency. This podcast is targeted at IT professionals and technical writers. Subscribe today to never miss a single episode!

Today’s episode reviews a recent video interview with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei that was published on YouTube on November 11, 2024.

Hosts Daphne and Fred share their spirited analysis of this nearly five-and-a-half hour interview between Amodei and Lex Fridman. They dig deep into the current status and capabilities of consumer-level AI and its future direction.

Amodei focuses on the ethical issues surrounding AI and how his company Anthropic is attempting to bake human values and ethical parameters into their AI tools, including Claude. He discusses tough topics like marketplace disruption, job displacement, and how the rapid pace of advancement in the AI space could lead to problems.

The Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency is currently taking on new clients. We enjoy helping companies with their documentation and communications strategy and implementation. Contact us to learn about our reasonable rates and fast turnaround.

>> Watch the Amodei interview: https://tinyurl.com/mp22b95u

>> Read the Curt Robbins article "Understanding Anthropic: Rising Star in AI": https://tinyurl.com/46btw22z

>> Read the Robbins article "Comparing AI Frontier Models: ChatGPT, Claude, & Gemini": https://tinyurl.com/3esnc25e

>> Read the Robbins article "AI Job Replacement Fears Are Good. Here's Why.": https://tinyurl.com/p5t27t7d

>> Join the LinkedIn group Technical Writing Success: https://tinyurl.com/mr28u7td

>> Subscribe to the Technical Writing Success podcast: https://tinyurl.com/uu9hpyzt

Welcome to episode 079 of the AI for Technical Writers podcast from the Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency. This podcast is targeted at IT professionals and technical writers. Subscribe today to never miss a single episode!

Today’s episode reviews a report released in January by the Institute for Corporate Productivity entitled "Workforce Readiness in the Era of AI: Executive Brief."

Hosts Daphne and Fred share their spirited analysis of this fresh report and unpack its observations of AI in the workforce and how it is changing work as we know it.

The report points out that use of generative AI in human resources doubled between 2023 and 2024, from 22% to 41%. 79% of organizations surveyed reported that their workforce is unprepared to use generative AI.

The Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency is currently taking on new clients. We enjoy helping companies with their documentation and communications strategy and implementation. Contact us to learn about our reasonable rates and fast turnaround.

>> Read the Institute for Corporate Productivity report: https://tinyurl.com/2x53uent

>> Read the Curt Robbins article "Understanding Anthropic: Rising Star in AI": https://tinyurl.com/46btw22z

>> Read the Robbins article "Comparing ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, & Grok": https://tinyurl.com/3zwttxhk

>> Read the Robbins article "AI Job Replacement Fears Are Good. Here's Why.": https://tinyurl.com/p5t27t7d

>> Join the LinkedIn group Technical Writing Success: https://tinyurl.com/mr28u7td

>> Subscribe to the Technical Writing Success podcast: https://tinyurl.com/uu9hpyzt

Welcome to episode 078 of the AI for Technical Writers podcast from the Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency. This podcast is targeted at IT professionals and technical writers. Subscribe today to never miss a single episode!

Today’s episode reviews a recent blog article by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman entitled "Three Observations" that was published on February 9 on Altman's personal blog.

Hosts Daphne and Fred share their spirited analysis of this article and unpack its assessment of the future of AI, including Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), an advanced state of AI that is predicted to be achieved in the next few years.

Writes Altman: "AGI is a weakly defined term, but generally speaking we mean it to be a system that can tackle increasingly complex problems, at human level, in many fields."

The Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency is currently taking on new clients. We enjoy helping companies with their documentation and communications strategy and implementation. Contact us to learn about our reasonable rates and fast turnaround.

>> Read the Altman article: https://tinyurl.com/5c9mwy6a

>> Read the Curt Robbins article "Understanding Anthropic: Rising Star in AI": https://tinyurl.com/46btw22z

>> Read the Robbins article "Comparing ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, & Grok": https://tinyurl.com/3zwttxhk

>> Read the Robbins article "AI Job Replacement Fears Are Good. Here's Why.": https://tinyurl.com/p5t27t7d

>> Join the LinkedIn group Technical Writing Success: https://tinyurl.com/mr28u7td

>> Subscribe to the Technical Writing Success podcast: https://tinyurl.com/uu9hpyzt

Welcome to episode 077 of the AI for Technical Writers podcast from the Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency. This podcast is targeted at IT professionals and technical writers. Subscribe today to never miss a single episode!

Today’s episode reviews a recent article by Heather Baker entitled "You Trained Your AI, But Did You Train Your People?" that was published on January 30.

Hosts Daphne and Fred share their spirited analysis of this educational article and unpack its assessment of the risks being assumed by organizations that adopt AI and the actions they should be taking to prevent problems and ensure productivity improvements for some employees.

They highlight Baker's suggestions to organizations, including her belief that AI literacy should be non-negotiable, the need for solid policies and unification of AI use across the enterprise, why fact-checking should be mandatory, and the need to audit AI-generated work.

The Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency is currently taking on new clients. We enjoy helping companies with their documentation and communications strategy and implementation. Contact us to learn about our reasonable rates and fast turnaround.

>> Read the Baker article: https://tinyurl.com/4wscfk8w

>> Read the Curt Robbins article "Understanding Anthropic: Rising Star in AI": https://tinyurl.com/46btw22z

>> Read the Robbins article "Comparing ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, & Grok": https://tinyurl.com/3zwttxhk

>> Read the Robbins article "AI Job Replacement Fears Are Good. Here's Why.": https://tinyurl.com/p5t27t7d

>> Join the LinkedIn group Technical Writing Success: https://tinyurl.com/mr28u7td

>> Subscribe to the Technical Writing Success podcast: https://tinyurl.com/uu9hpyzt

Welcome to episode 076 of the AI for Technical Writers podcast from the Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency. This podcast is targeted at IT professionals and technical writers. Subscribe today to never miss a single episode!

Today’s episode reviews a new report from Anthropic entitled "Which Economic Tasks are Performed with AI? Evidence from Millions of Claude Conversations" that was published on February 10.

Hosts Daphne and Fred share their spirited analysis of this insightful report and unpack its assessment of the current job market and the role that AI plays in a variety of job types and industry segments.

The pair discuss the findings from the report, including how technical writers and IT professionals are being affected by AI, including how they can best prepare for the future and a world filled with AI.

They also confront the controversial topic of job disruption and whether AI will replace technical writers. They determine that AI is currently best positioned as a supplement to human skills and that the most successful technical writers and documentation specialists will be those who embrace AI and learn how to use it to boost efficiency and improve productivity.

The Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency is currently taking on new clients. We enjoy helping companies with their documentation and communications strategy and implementation. Contact us to learn about our reasonable rates and fast turnaround.

>> Read the Anthropic report: https://tinyurl.com/ymwfwvff

>> Read the Curt Robbins article "Understanding Anthropic: Rising Star in AI": https://tinyurl.com/46btw22z

>> Read the Robbins article "Comparing ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, & Grok": https://tinyurl.com/3zwttxhk

>> Read the Robbins article "AI Job Replacement Fears Are Good. Here's Why.": https://tinyurl.com/p5t27t7d

>> Join the LinkedIn group Technical Writing Success: https://tinyurl.com/mr28u7td

>> Subscribe to the Technical Writing Success podcast: https://tinyurl.com/uu9hpyzt

Welcome to episode 075 of the AI for Technical Writers podcast from the Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency. This podcast is targeted at IT professionals and technical writers. Subscribe today to never miss a single episode!

Today’s episode reviews an article from Curt Robbins entitled "AI Reasoning Models: The Next Frontier in Artificial Intelligence" that was published on February 7 on LinkedIn.

Hosts Daphne and Fred share their spirited analysis of this informative article and unpack Robbins' explanation of reasoning models. They explain the pros, cons, and future direction of this tech and how it will affect technical writers and documentation specialists.

The pair discuss how ethics and standards are critical as technical writers move into the age of AI. Fact checking has always been and is increasingly an area where human technical writers outperform AI and must serve as gatekeepers to ensure that misinformation and a loss of accuracy does not infect the world of technical documentation.

The Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency is currently taking on new clients. We enjoy helping companies with their documentation and communications strategy and implementation. Contact us to learn about our reasonable rates and fast turnaround.

>> Read the Robbins article "Why Large Language Models are Changing the World": https://tinyurl.com/4x9ksd2s

>> Read the Robbins article "Understanding Anthropic: Rising Star in AI": https://tinyurl.com/46btw22z

>> Read the Robbins article "Comparing ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, & Grok": https://tinyurl.com/3zwttxhk

>> Read the Robbins article "AI Job Replacement Fears Are Good. Here's Why.": https://tinyurl.com/p5t27t7d

>> Join the LinkedIn group Technical Writing Success: https://tinyurl.com/mr28u7td

>> Subscribe to the Technical Writing Success podcast: https://tinyurl.com/uu9hpyzt