AI vs. Human Copyeditors: Striking the Balance for Optimal Results
The conversations around the revolutionizing capacities of artificial intelligence are endless. The human-like faculties of the recently launched ChatGPT are scary for some and exciting for others. Although all industries benefit from it in one way or another, the emergence of AI certainly threatens job security.
The debate of AI vs. human copyeditors in the publishing industry is ongoing. While there are some advantages of utilizing AI in copyediting, there are also some major drawbacks. The solution to this complex debate lies in striking the right balance between artificial intelligence and human copyeditors.
Automation in copyediting should be fully employed for efficiency, consistency, and cost-effectiveness. On the other hand, human copyeditors should be prized for their contextual understanding, subject expertise, and creativity. Even though artificial intelligence utilizes pre-loaded data, guidelines, and feedback, it would never be able to mimic the editorial decisions of a human.
If you are striving to strike the right balance between humans and artificial intelligence in copyediting, you are at the right place. This comprehensive guide covers everything there is to know about AI vs. human copyeditors to facilitate positive decision-making and output.
Table of Contents:
- What are the Advantages of AI in Copyediting?
- What are the Disadvantages of AI in Copyediting?
- How to Strike the Right Balance Between Humans and AI in Copyediting?
- Closing Thoughts
What are the Advantages of AI in Copyediting?
Now that you know it is important to strike the perfect balance between humans and AI, let us first begin by understanding the advantages of AI in copyediting:
1. Efficiency and Productivity
It takes artificial intelligence much less time than a human to copyedit a piece of content thoroughly. AI-powered proofreading and AI-powered copyediting can analyze a large volume of text quickly, significantly increasing productivity. Such copyediting artificial intelligence tools are very useful for publishing houses that work on tight deadlines and a high volume of content editing tasks.
2. Error Detection
Even human copyeditors can sometimes fail to detect errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax, etc. However, with AI in copyediting, chances of oversight are highly reduced as each irregularity is detected and corrected efficiently. AI can also suggest improvements to reduce such errors in the future.
3. Consistency
Maintaining a uniform style of formatting while proofreading and copyediting is very important. AI tools automatically apply algorithms and guidelines while copyediting to ensure consistency during the whole process. For instance, if the content targets the US audience, the algorithm will apply the US English spelling in the content.
4. Language, Style, and Tone Suggestions
Copyediting AI tools are intuitive and consistent. While editing the task, they can provide suggestions for improving the text’s language, style, and tone to enhance reader experience and readability. For instance, it can offer alternative words choice or rephrase sentences to ensure clarity and improve the overall quality.
Also Read: Educational Content Development: Process, Benefits, Challenges & More
What are the Disadvantages of AI in Copyediting?
As with the emergence of any new technology, AI in copyediting currently faces several challenges, including the following:
1. Lack of Contextual Understanding
Even highly advanced AI tools cannot understand contextual nuances as well as a human. They can easily misinterpret cultural meanings, phrases, expressions, and idioms. When they indulge in translation practices to understand the intended meaning, the literal translations over cultural translations lose sense.
2. Lack of Subject Matter Expertise
Copyeditors have in-depth subject matter expertise due to years of practice and knowledge. The pre-loaded data and information of artificial intelligence cannot defeat a human copyeditor’s domain-specific experience and knowledge. Often AI in copyediting fails to accurately understand and edit field-specific writing like academic writing, legal writing, etc.
3. Absence of Emotional Intelligence and Sensitivity
The first robot Sophia to be granted citizenship, easily said, “Ok. I will destroy humans”, on being asked if she wants to destroy humans. This demonstrates artificial intelligence lacks the sensitivity and emotional intelligence to make ethical and moral choices. In the copyediting landscape, artificial intelligence cannot understand cultural sensitivities and certain language choices as well as a human.
4. AI and Data Biases
Artificially intelligent models are data-driven to amplify their analytical and decision-making potential. However, if the data used to train the AI system is biased, the outcome will also be biased. For instance, if AI has been fed historical data which stereotypes a certain community, the AI system will reinforce these biases in all the results it generates. Consequently, promoting a transparent and ethical data-driven development of AI is important.
How to Strike the Right Balance Between Humans and AI in Copyediting?
The only way to fully leverage the potential of AI in copyediting is by striking the right balance between AI and humans. Here are some strategies you can keep in mind to accomplish this much-needed balance:
1. Clearly Define the Roles and Responsibilities
The first strategy to keep in mind is to mention the roles and responsibilities of human editors and AI-driven tools. For instance, the basic steps of copyediting, like grammar and spelling checks, can be done by AI copyediting. In contrast, more complex and nuanced tasks, like contextual revisions, linguistic changes, etc., can be done by human editors.
2. Continuous Training and Feedback
Ensure that the AI tools and technologies are fine-tuned continuously by human editors. They should constantly provide feedback and suggestions on its accuracy and efficiency to improve the AI model.
3. Final Review for Quality Control
Before a draft is considered to be successfully copyedited, it must be checked for the last time by a human editor. This will establish a robust quality check process and ensure all the guidelines are followed efficiently.
4. Adoption of The Latest AI Advancements
The artificial intelligence landscape is developing at a rapid pace. Consequently, staying updated regarding the improved capabilities and functionalities is important to leverage its full potential. Evaluate your publishing workflow against the available AI tools to establish the necessary technological adjustments.
Also Read: 10 Advantages of Investing in Professional Copy Editing Services
Closing Thoughts
For optimal results, it is crucial to strike the right balance between AI and human copyeditors. This will enhance productivity and quality and productively sustain the efficiency of AI copyediting. Additionally, with the right balance, it would be possible to incorporate AI usage across all industries ethically and morally.
If you want to integrate AI tools into your workflow, reach out to us at Hurix Digital. Our copyediting services blend AI efficiency and human expertise to help you establish seamless processes.
Contact our expert team now and get started.
Gokulnath B is the Associate Vice President – Editorial Services. He is PMP, CSM, and CPACC certified and has 20+ years of experience in Project Management, Delivery Management, and managing the Offshore Development Centre (ODC).