# Writing the Future By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2023-09-22 Most people do not like writing or reading essays. The same goes for books or long emails. This is not particularly abnormal throughout history. Reading and writing "long form" content is less important today than before the telephone, audio recordings, and video conferences. So, we've devalued it. Before these things, writing and reading was the most cost-effective way to communicate with others at a distance. When letters took weeks or months to reach someone, including all of the key information in the message was critical. So, sentences and paragraphs mattered. Today, the communication cost is so low that one can afford to be unclear and choppy as it is cheap to respond with a clarification. In short, things written in the past are more coherent and well-constructed than things today because of the reduced cost and delivery time of messages. Conversely, with emojis and text messaging, pointless and amusing banter and witty dialogue have improved. There is nothing particularly wrong with this evolution. It is what it is. However, devaluing long-form written communication creates an interesting problem as AI chatbots emerge. These chatbots rely upon written text to be effective. These bots are only as good as the content given to them, but we are decidedly creating less effective and coherent informative text. So, to make them more effective, we need to write more effectively. This is counter-intuitive to the popular AI movement that positions AI to do all the mundane work for us, like reading and writing. For AI to be effective within organizations, someone must write down organizational strategies, policies, and institutional knowledge in long form. Whoever writes these down to be consumed by the AI chatbots of the future will control the narrative in profound ways. If one seeks power and influence, write down the revolution. Future AI assistant bots will incorporate it into their supportive directive for the organization. One can bet on organizational and individual laziness not to challenge the company's AI when it suggests deploying a strategy based on official administrative policy documents. One just needs to write the policy that no one else will read. The power of the written word remains, and history repeats itself, if not in more subtly subversive ways. #### Related Items [[Writing]] [[Control]] [[Influence]] [[Artificial Intelligence]] [[Organization]] [[Communication]]