While I am a voracious, enthusiastic reader, there are more than enough times throughout the day – particularly at work – where I struggle to keep up with all the industry news amidst the time constraints of meetings, productivity, and writing/messaging my own words. I also happen to agree quite a bit with Axios’s Smart Brevity philosophy, specifically for work.
And so Artifact’s latest update to their “Instagram for news” app is particularly interesting, and a great example of smart generative AI usage:
If you’re on the latest version of the app, you can summarize an article you’re reading by tapping the “Aa” icon at the top of the screen and then on “Summarize.” After a moment, the summary will appear at the top of your screen in a black box. You can also ask Artifact to summarize in different tones, including “Explain Like I’m Five,” “Emoji,” “Poem,” and “Gen Z,” by tapping the three dots menu in that black box.
You could argue this might end up a dangerous feature if it’s inaccurate (it is), but if it can be reliably perfected, it’s a massive game changer.
Naturally, the goal should be to strive for more succinct writing overall, but this is a start to aid the reader.