Technological advancement is a double-edged sword: Whereas it can bring prosperity and enhance life, technology replaces humans and tasks they’ve been doing for centuries. Research suggests technology could replace human resource departments, teachers, real estate agents, and even police officers and doctors.
For example, robotics and automation have been linked to lost manufacturing jobs, but debate continues about how fast and how precisely this will affect the U.S. workforce.
What about the editors?
There is an obvious fear within the writing world regarding technology and automation. With the advancement of the Internet and the creation of social media, the publication world has shifted dramatically. There is a worry about book publishing as e-readers have come on to the scene, though many are now picking up a physical book in addition to a digital one.
Newspapers have significantly changed in the past 20 years, with most cutting their print publication either by half or completely. This has dramatically affected the workforce, including the local news scene. The shift is happening so fast, it is difficult for universities to keep up with the changes and educate students before brand-new writers, editors, and publishers launch into full-time positions.
With the advent of software like PerfectIt and its improvement year on year, it might seem like technology is threatening editorial positions.
According to Larry Jordan, “the Law of Unintended Consequences . . . says that this new automated editing technology will put lots of us out of work.” He theorizes that most of us don’t create high-end storytelling, so new automated tools can take care of a text video for social media and check the highlights from a local sports event.
Artificial intelligence won’t replace high-end editing.
Jordan is right: Technology can catch the errors, such as misspellings, repetition, consistency, and even style guide differences. But what technology can’t replace is the human aspect.
According to Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty: “Grammar is complex. Writers may even want to break rules sometimes, for example, to accurately represent what a source said or to create natural sounding dialogue. Software may help, but editing is about much more than that.”
The human language isn’t easy for technology to pick up. There are subtleties, and language is learned through experiences and context, which artificial intelligence cannot digest and correct. Also, the author’s voice and vision are not easily simulated, as a software editor might change the meaning of a sentence with one click.
Experts are now leaning toward the theory that technology will refine jobs, not eliminate them. According to Forbes, “Instead of worrying about job losses, executives should be helping to reduce jobs in which [artificial intelligence] and machine learning take over boring tasks, while humans spend more time with higher-level tasks.”
In fact, automation and technology can help writers and editors do a more efficient job, so they can focus more on the meaning and precision of the work rather than the little parts that add to the whole. And who doesn’t like another set of “eyes” on their work before publication?