Full transcript
0:00There's some exciting new developments
0:01in a brand new survey that's giving us
0:03some shocking news about how people are
0:06using AI in their work, including some
0:09news that people who use AI might
0:11actually make more money than those who
0:13don't, but maybe not for the reasons you
0:15think. So, in this video, we're going to
0:17dive deep into the survey results here,
0:19as well as an interview with uh some of
0:22the people that ran these the survey uh
0:24that I thought was fascinating. Some
0:26really great sound bites there. So,
0:28let's dive into that and uh let's go.
0:30All right. So, I first want to highlight
0:32this newsletter from this is a paid
0:34newsletter from Jane Freriedman. And
0:36she's not sponsoring this video, nor do
0:38I have an affiliate link for her, but
0:40I'm going to strongly recommend anybody
0:43who's serious about having a career in
0:45publishing uh or even in
0:47self-publishing, you should definitely
0:49subscribe to her newsletter. And there
0:50is a free version here, but I kind of
0:53recommend going at the uh $80 a year uh
0:57level because you're going to get tons
0:58of really valuable advice every week.
1:01And if you just want to keep your pulse
1:02on the industry, it's like a fantastic
1:04way to do it. And again, not sponsored,
1:06no affiliate link, uh but uh I it's just
1:10something I strongly recommend. I had
1:12access to it when I worked at
1:13Kindlepreneur and I liked it so much
1:15that when I left Kindlepreneur to start
1:17this channel, I subscribed to it myself.
1:21Um, so that just tells you something
1:23there. Uh, so out of respect for the
1:26fact that this is a paid newsletter, I'm
1:27only going to give you some of the
1:28highlights from her email. Um, but
1:32there's some really interesting things
1:33in there. And then we'll go actually
1:35look at the actual survey, which is
1:36free, and I'll link to that down below
1:38as well. All of that's available and you
1:40can uh you can get it and uh take take a
1:43look for yourself. So all right u so
1:46this is some of what was in her
1:47newsletter about this uh huge survey. So
1:51uh this is examined a large
1:52cross-section of writers about their
1:54attitudes toward AI. Josh Bernoff and
1:57Gotham Ghost writers who have extensive
1:59experience with survey design and data
2:00analysis ran the survey. They collected
2:03nearly 1500 responses from working
2:04writers. Of these about 300 were fiction
2:07writers. Okay. So fiction is a small
2:11subset of all writers generally. Um but
2:15that's still a decent number of people
2:18to get responses from. She also notes
2:20that Bookbub conducted a similar survey
2:22and I remember when this went out it
2:23actually generated quite a bit of
2:24chatter online uh where they reached out
2:27tound to,200 writers and they found in
2:31that survey that writers were about 45%
2:34of writers were using AI in some
2:36capacity and uh she points out some
2:38comments that she saw which I thought
2:40were kind of hilarious like this one. I
2:42don't believe it. Every author I know
2:43hates AI with a passion. Uh, so this
2:46person clearly lives in a bubble and I
2:48unsubscribed from bookmail bookbub
2:50emails because of this which I think
2:52like really like they were just
2:55collecting data. Like this just goes to
2:56show that people will ignore all
2:58empirical data if it doesn't align with
3:00their worldview. But anyway, she notes
3:03here that for those who still doubt or
3:04disbelieve this new survey should
3:06provide ample evidence that AI is being
3:08used by many writers across all sectors,
3:10Bookbub's survey was not a fluke. More
3:13than 60% of writers in this new survey
3:15use AI at least sometimes and 25% use it
3:18daily 25%. So this is not just a small
3:23niche like we uh pe people are using AI
3:26a lot. So here are some of the key
3:28findings. Um how writers feel about AI
3:30depends almost entirely on how much they
3:33use it. More than half of advanced AI
3:35users think that AI is a positive force
3:37for the profession and that it is has
3:38improved their career prospects. But
3:40only 3% of non-users agree. And there's
3:43a graph that uh I'll show you in a
3:45second that shows that. And uh there
3:47I've been saying this for years. Um if
3:50you hate AI, it's probably because you
3:53haven't used it.
3:55You should try using it. You should see
3:57where in your business you can try and
3:59apply it. There's going to be something
4:01in your business that you don't like
4:03that AI can do better, and it will take
4:05time off of your hands. Just saying. Uh,
4:08the most advanced AI users have higher
4:10incomes. This is probably the most in
4:12exciting statistic here, although it's
4:14maybe not what you think. There is
4:15definitely uh correlation does not equal
4:18causation here. Um, but I'll get into
4:21that when we get into the interview that
4:23she shows, but um it does show that
4:27advanced AI users have a median income
4:29of 12 or of 120,000 a year, which is 64%
4:33higher than non-users.
4:36So there may be a reason why you might
4:38want to be thinking about using AI. Um
4:42because even if it's not correlated or
4:44even if it's not causation, there is a
4:47correlation and we want to examine what
4:48that correlation is because perhaps you
4:51want to get more of what that
4:52correlation entails to help you in your
4:55business. Okay. Uh and then fiction
4:57writers who don't use AI hate it, which
5:00doesn't surprise anybody here. Uh,
5:02fiction writers were analyzed separately
5:04in a survey because their business
5:05models differ from that of other types
5:06of writers. Of the fiction group, 42%
5:09use AI at least sometimes, which more
5:11closely mirrors the bookbub survey
5:13results. But non-users were nearly
5:15unanimous in their disgust for the
5:17technology. Fiction authors using AI
5:19shared some of the same concerns about
5:20the technology as young non-users, but
5:23to a lesser extent. uh which I can agree
5:26like I think and just because we use AI
5:29doesn't mean we are uh completely
5:33optimistic about everything like there's
5:34definitely some reason to be concerned
5:36especially because this is such a fast
5:38growing thing
5:40but definitely to a much lesser extent
5:42for me personally I have very little
5:43fears around the future with AI very
5:46very little um here's that graph
5:48correlating how uh your attitude towards
5:50AI versus how much you use it so clearly
5:53as the more you use it the more likely
5:56your attitude is going to go up. So
5:59please people, if you are upset about
6:02AI, if you fear AI, people fear what
6:04they don't understand. Maybe try to
6:07understand it a little bit. All right.
6:08So Jane Freriedman ended up speaking
6:10with Bernoff via Zoom about some of
6:12these data points. And so this is an
6:15interview that's been edited and
6:16condensed for publication. And there's
6:18some really interesting gems in here
6:19that I want to talk about. For instance,
6:21this quote here from Bernoff I thought
6:22was really interesting. He said now
6:23looking at the people who haven't used
6:25it and aren't knowledgeable about it. I
6:27spent 20 years as a technology analyst.
6:29I watched all these technologies come in
6:32and this is the way it this is always
6:34the way it is. People have all sorts of
6:36emotional reactions when the web came in
6:39and e-commerce came in and mobile
6:40devices. We've heard the story over and
6:42over again. The difference this time is
6:45that the speed of technology advance in
6:47AI is an order of magnitude faster than
6:49anything else I've ever seen. And it's
6:51more universal. E-commerce only affected
6:53people buying things in retail. This
6:55affects everything, every job and every
6:57activity. So, of course, people are
6:58afraid and ignorant because, you know,
7:00the smartest people in the field of AI
7:02don't understand all the implications,
7:03let alone some person who's like, "Oh,
7:05yeah, I heard that it does this thing."
7:07Uh, and this is something I've been
7:08saying literally since the beginning,
7:11right? Um, this is no different than any
7:14technological advancement before. And
7:16there will come a time when people will
7:19scratch their heads on why anybody had
7:21any problem with this technological
7:22advancement when it came. But that's
7:24probably years down the line before we
7:26get to that point. Um, but we are
7:28getting to that point like every
7:30technological advancement has faced the
7:33same skepticism. But he's right in the
7:35fact that the advancement the level of
7:38advancement happening this time is much
7:40much faster. And so that makes it even
7:43scarier than in the past. But I don't
7:46think it changes the fact that
7:49this has happened before and it'll all
7:50happen again and it's not going to
7:53change much in the long term. Um, we're
7:56just going to see the we're going to see
7:58some instability while things normalize
8:02and while industries normalize to these
8:04things, but eventually we'll reach
8:06another stable plane where like we're
8:09all just using these tools and it's just
8:11normal, right? and then we'll be
8:14spending much more of our time doing
8:16things that we couldn't do before
8:17because we were too tied up doing the
8:19things that AI is now doing for us. That
8:21sort of thing. This quote was also very
8:23interesting. He says, "There has to be
8:25an enormous amount of effort put into
8:26the smart ways, the right ways to use
8:29this. We'll get there, but it's going to
8:31be ugly, especially for content
8:32organizations, for publishers. There's
8:34evidence that they're basically just
8:36throwing AI at the problem in hopes that
8:37it will make everything more efficient,
8:39and that's a terrible idea. There has to
8:41be a real reckoning with what is the
8:42right way for creative people to use
8:43these tools. And this is what I've been
8:45trying to do ever since I started this
8:47channel was to teach people the right
8:49way to use these tools. Ways that
8:51harness your creativity instead of
8:53trying to replace them. That using it as
8:55a productivity tool and not as a
8:57replacement tool. Uh that's that's been
8:59my whole dream, my whole goal from the
9:02very beginning. And I think we have
9:04found a lot of good ways uh what I would
9:07call what he would call the right ways
9:08for creative people to use these tools.
9:11And we're still figuring it out. So
9:12we're certainly not going to be perfect,
9:13but uh that has always been the goal.
9:16All right, so let's talk about the the
9:18increase in income for people who have
9:21who are using AI. Um so Jane says, "The
9:25other standout finding for me was that
9:26the most advanced AI users have higher
9:28incomes than non-users. Why do you think
9:30that is?" And then he says, "That's a
9:32really hard question. You know, this is
9:33a classic example of correlation is not
9:35causation." I'm speculating here because
9:38it's difficult to tease this kind of
9:39information out of the survey data, but
9:41I think that if you are a freelance
9:43writer or a freelancer doing content
9:45marketing or a business author or
9:46anybody who is now making 120,000 or
9:49150,000 or 180,000 as a writer, at that
9:52level, things that can make you more
9:54efficient are extremely valuable. So
9:58yes, it's not surprising to me that
10:00those people would look and say, "Oh,
10:01well, if I can get really good at this,
10:03I can save myself time and energy in the
10:04work that I'm doing. I'm ghostwriting a
10:06book right now with an expert on a
10:08startup company." So, he's very forward
10:10focused on technology. And when we have
10:12a task to do and I do not use AI, he
10:14gets upset about how wasteful I'm being
10:16of my time. He's like, "You could have
10:18just had chat GBT or Claude give you the
10:20answer to that." uh which definitely we
10:22don't want to overuse AI in cases where
10:24the human can can and should be doing it
10:27better but there are more ways that
10:30people realize that AI can do just fine
10:34and when you use it it frees up your
10:36time to do other things to continue on
10:38he says a significant finding though is
10:40that most intense users of AI are the
10:42most likely to say that it has increased
10:44their income these people are certainly
10:46telling you that this is a tool that has
10:48made it possible for them to make more
10:49money for anyone one who's wondering if
10:51they should be trying this out. That's a
10:52pretty important finding and I agree.
10:54The people who are really good at the
10:56work they do as writers can now be more
10:58efficient. And the people who weren't
10:59that good and weren't doing the work
11:00that was relatively wrote work, well,
11:03you know, it's not going to be a really
11:04good time for these folks. And again,
11:05I've been saying this, oh my gosh, I've
11:08been saying this for uh at least a year
11:10or two. I've said it in presentations
11:13that the the people who are hard workers
11:16and uh are dialed into their creativity
11:19and have practice and experience versus
11:22a person who has none of those things.
11:24If they both use AI, the person with all
11:27of the experience and the creativity and
11:29all of that is always always going to do
11:33better than the person who doesn't even
11:35if they're using the same tools. Like
11:37it's just it's just I don't know why
11:38people don't get this. Like it it's
11:41obvious to me like if you're a level 10
11:43writer versus a level two writer and you
11:46use AI, AI might be able to double your
11:49input and your and um and your u ability
11:53as a writer, but that means you're now a
11:55level 20 writer and the other person is
11:56a level four writer. You know, like it's
11:59still important to get that experience
12:02and to spend time doing creative tasks
12:05and all of that stuff because it will
12:06help you in the long term. But AI is
12:08just there to make you more efficient at
12:10what you already do. So those were the
12:12highlights from uh from this newsletter
12:15and the interview there. I wanted to
12:16actually look at the actual survey here.
12:19Um so I'll link to this down below. You
12:20can go and look through it. One of the
12:23interesting things for me with this
12:25graph which showed how people were using
12:27it. Um so the number this is of course
12:30among the people the the 60 plus percent
12:33of people that were using AI. this is
12:36how they were using it. Um, number one
12:39was to suggest possible titles or
12:41headings, which I thought was
12:42interesting. Uh, number two was as a
12:45replacement for web search, which 71%.
12:48Uh, and I got to admit, like although I
12:51use AI for a lot of things, as a
12:53replacement for web search is probably
12:54the number one thing, the thing that I
12:57am using most often. Uh, to brainstorm
13:00is very high, which makes sense. uh to
13:02find appropriate words or phrases for a
13:03concept you're describing also makes
13:05sense for other forms of research to
13:07generate text content that you then edit
13:09further. And this is probably what in in
13:12our story hacker community and in the
13:15methods that I teach, this is probably
13:16what we do the most when writing uh
13:19books is that it's not again it's a
13:22productivity tool, not a replacement
13:23tool. We we are trying to get ideas and
13:27have it get 80% of the way there so we
13:30can then efficiently take it the the
13:32remaining 20%. To summarize articles and
13:34papers or other content. Yep. That's
13:36something AI is really good at. To
13:37generate outlines also. Well, AI is not
13:41as good at that, but it it can do okay
13:44when when prompted correctly by someone
13:46who knows what they're doing and who uh
13:49gives it plenty of guidance to find
13:51flaws and inconsistency in what you
13:52write. Yep, it can do that. to generate
13:54article or blog post ideas. So, more on
13:57the brainstorming there. As a devil's
13:59advocate, to find weaknesses in what you
14:01write, which I thought was an
14:02interesting one, particularly if you're
14:03into some kind of like business or
14:04persuasive writing. That could be really
14:06interesting. For deep research reports,
14:09to analyze numerical or quantitative
14:11data. Yeah, it's really great for that
14:13kind of stuff. To analyze textual data,
14:15aka survey responses. Yeah, that's
14:18great. To assess the reading level of
14:20what you have written. to create
14:22illustrations or artwork to accompany
14:24what you write. To manage and or format
14:26sources, links, and footnotes, to do
14:29numerical calculations, and now we're
14:30getting into stuff that not a lot of
14:31people are doing, to create software
14:33code or apps. To create text content
14:34that's then published without
14:36significant editing, which is only 1%.
14:38So, a lot of people think that when we
14:41talk about writing a book with AI, they
14:43they think that it's a button that we
14:45push and then we publish the results and
14:46that's what we're done with. Only 1% are
14:49doing that. and and and I would not
14:51advocate for that at all because like I
14:53said, anybody with the experience who
14:56actually applies their craft to the use
14:58of AI, they're always going to do better
15:01than the Joe Schmo who's just pumping
15:04out content with AI and then publishing
15:06it. You're you're never going to get
15:08good results out of that compared to the
15:10person who actually puts in a little
15:11effort, even a little effort.
15:13So, it's nice to see that of all of
15:15these people who are using AI, most of
15:16them are using AI in genuinely helpful
15:19ways and not in the what I would
15:22describe here as you know generating
15:24content without specific without
15:26significant editing. Like that's the
15:28kind of thing uh that people are doing
15:30that are not going to find success and
15:32it looks like most of the people who are
15:34using AI are not doing that. So, that's
15:36good. So, there's a lot of interesting
15:37things in here like AI powered writers
15:39are sure they're more productive. a lot
15:41of cool findings. Heavy AI users have
15:43more positive attitudes toward it. So,
15:45yeah, I definitely recommend that you
15:46check that out and uh see what you can
15:49find in there that that's interesting.
15:51It's not all, you know, roses and
15:54everything cuz um there are some things
15:56in there. There there's definite
15:57concerns even among those people that
15:58are using AI to who who think that there
16:02are potential problems in the future. I
16:04find it best not to speculate about the
16:05future. I know that in terms of uh the
16:08way markets work and everything,
16:09everything always equals out eventually
16:11and you just kind of the the best way to
16:14be able to uh insulate yourself against
16:17the shaky time before we get to market
16:20stabilization
16:22is to actually embrace these tools and
16:24become an expert in them because that
16:25makes you it gives you a much higher
16:28likelihood that you'll be employable,
16:31right? So, that's just my thoughts
16:33there. Uh, hopefully this was
16:35interesting to you.