How Can Artificial Intelligence Support Utility Storytelling?

What You’ll Learn

Whether you’re writing a story or creating an image, prompts are key tools to help you effectively work with artificial intelligence. Kyle Allwine shares how he uses prompts to deliver different versions of original content and strengthen his storytelling.

Click here to read Kyle’s article on LinkedIn.

Guest Speaker

Kyle Allwine

Show Notes

Transcripts have been lightly edited for clarity and readability.

Intro: A production of Pioneer Utility Resources. StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers.

Megan McKoy-Noe: How can artificial intelligence support utility storytelling? That’s what we’ll be talking about on this episode of The StoryConnect Podcast. Hi, I’m Megan McKoy-Noe, one of the storytellers at Pioneer Utility Resources and your host today. I am joined by Kyle Allwine, manager of public relations at Northern Neck Electric Cooperative in Virginia. Kyle, thanks for being here.

Kyle Allwine: Oh, you’re most welcome. Thank you so much for having me, Megan. I’m excited.

Megan McKoy-Noe: I’m excited too, because it’s all about AI right now. And I’ve been reading sci-fi books for years, and it’s finally here. So for listeners who might not be familiar with artificial intelligence, which we are calling AI today, can you briefly explain what ChatGPT is?

Kyle Allwine: Yes, definitely Megan. And this is, full disclosure, I am not a computer scientist. I have played one on TV before. But [inaudible] as close as you’re going to get to an answer. What I’m going to try to do is, is basically, it’s Siri meets Jarvis meets Google. And that’s the most simple way I can explain ChatGPT. It’s basically a personal assistant that has all of the Google archives and all that kind of fun stuff in its noodle, in its brain. And when you ask it questions, it will bring that information to you. So it’s a tool, and there’s a lot of fear around it because of headlines and all kinds of stuff like that. But it’s a tool no different than – remember when people were in school, and you weren’t allowed to use Wikipedia as a source because they were like –

Megan McKoy-Noe: No. But then, when I was in school, Kyle, what I remember is Google coming out, and everyone being, “Oh, you don’t have to go to the library to search microfiche.” We might have a slight age difference, but that’s okay. So tell me about your college experience, Kyle.

Kyle Allwine: So when I was at school, Wikipedia you couldn’t use as a source and they were like, “You know, anybody can upload information.” And, you know, “How do you know it’s real?” And this and that. It’s the same type of things that we’re seeing now with AI. It’s the same types of concerns, like, you know, “Where’s the information coming from? How do they know that?” And, you know, it’s the whole hype of like, “What in the world?” But it’s really not that scary, right now. It’s really just a tool. And it’s, just a few days ago, Google was under some pressure because it was kind of like Samsung was going to start dropping Google from their platform and going to a new search engine. So Google is announcing that they’re going to be implementing some more AI into their search engine results. Microsoft Designer, which is like a competitor to Canva or Adobe Express, has recently launched, and that also has some AI behind it now as well. So it’s, you know, the AI of the Terminator movies or things like that. This is not that. This is really just a –.

Megan McKoy-Noe: Yet.

Kyle Allwine: Yet. Exactly.

Megan McKoy-Noe: It’s not Skynet, yet.

Kyle Allwine: Yeah, it’s not Skynet, yet. But that’s why I kind of like to describe it as like Jarvis from Iron Man, because Siri is not –

Megan McKoy-Noe: I didn’t catch the Iron Man reference, okay? I knew who Siri was, but I was thinking Jarvis, is that like one of the search engines that that died and.

Kyle Allwine: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

Megan McKoy-Noe: From Yahoo! or something? Somebody had a search engine that was “Ask Jarvis,” and I thought that was the reference. But no, no.

Kyle Allwine: It was like a butler’s name. Ask Jeeves.

Megan McKoy-Noe: Ask Jeeves. That was it. Yes. Okay.

Kyle Allwine: Okay. So, yeah, Jarvis is Iron Man, and in the first Iron Man movie, Jarvis is like this AI personal assistant.

Megan McKoy-Noe: Oh, I get it now.

Kyle Allwine: Tony Stark would be like, “Hey, can you bring me the files from this?” And Jarvis is like, “Uploading them now.” And eventually that’s kind of more of what I think this is going to be, is, you know, to find those efficiencies in life. But yeah, so that’s what ChatGPT is. It’s one of these these kind of Jarvis meets search engine tools.

Megan McKoy-Noe: Okay. Now OpenAI is the parent company of ChatGPT, and they are the same company that created DALL-E and DALL-E 2 to help you create realistic images. And that’s what Kyle, you were mentioning, is now incorporated as part of, you called it Microsoft Designer.

Kyle Allwine: Yeah.

Megan McKoy-Noe: Designer. Now whether you’re writing a story or creating an image, one of the key features of working with AI for storytelling is writing the right prompts. The questions that you’re going to pose to AI, no matter which one. There’s many competitors that are out there right now. Please never name them Skynet. Last week I heard the phrase prompt-ograph. Have you heard that one? It was a photographer talking about it, and he had entered an AI generated picture into a contest and won for most creative or experimental photography. And he won. And he turned down the award. He was like, “No, no, no. I just want us to talk about this.” But promp-a-graft is a new term describing how artists are leveraging prompts to be able to get the right results to help them. So after you’ve been using ChatGPT for a few months, what advice would you have for a communicator who is writing a prompt for the first time?

Kyle Allwine: So I think the best thing to do is, like I said a few minutes ago, this is really a tool. And the best thing about this tool is that if you mess up the first time, it’s okay. Like I know a lot of times when we use technology, we’re like, “Uh oh, like what happens if I break it?” Like, I love it when people, you know, when I help my mom with IT things on her phone, and she’s like, “Well, what if I break it?” Well, you can’t break it. Like, you just refresh the page. Like if you don’t get the prompts, if you don’t get the answers that you like, you can just refresh the page and try again. So a lot of it’s going to be trial and error, but the ways that I like to use it and find it the most useful is that I will say “write an article for our magazine.” And now I need to do like 8 million other things. I need a tweet. I need a LinkedIn post. I need a column for my CEO. I need a Facebook post. What if I get a call from the media, and they have some questions for me? What are some questions that they might ask me about this article that I’ve posted? And well, I can get all those answers from ChatGPT if I just punch that article in there, and then say “using this article, please do this for me.” And yes, I am one of those people that puts “please” in my prompts. It doesn’t really matter, but it makes me.

Megan McKoy-Noe: That’s so nice that – no be nice to AI. You never know when it’s going to become sentient.

Kyle Allwine: When it’s Skynet, they’re going to be like that “Kyle Allwine guy. He was really nice to me. He said please.”

Megan McKoy-Noe: “We’re going to let him live … for now.”

Kyle Allwine: That’s right. So. But yeah. And then I’ll ask it, you know, please make me a LinkedIn post for key accounts. Or please make me a post for, you know, other co-op communicators. And it’ll kind of start tailoring it. Another thing that you can do with it that’s kind of cool is, I don’t really write an AP style, but our magazine is like, you have to write an AP style. Well, I can tell ChatGPT to put it in AP style for me. Then I don’t even have to worry about it, you know? I can just write how I like to write, which is just free form. And the other thing that you can do with the prompts is, you can kind of get started on how to even break through that initial writer’s block of, “Hey, I don’t know what I need to know about fire safety within a home with electricity.” So, you know, you can ask ChatGPT, you know, what are some things families need to keep in mind to keep their homes safe from electrical fires? And it’ll give you some bullet points. And then the last prompt recommendation I have is a lot of us deal with very technical information, and we’re not technical people. And sometimes people in our own organizations, they can’t get things to like and explain like, I’m five years old level. So be like, explain like I’m five, what is an electrical fault? It’ll tell you, and then you can be like, “Okay, but what is that?” And you can then start like having a conversation with it like you would an engineer to kind of get almost to the point where you can even say like, “What are some good books for me to read about this topic, not knowing anything about it,” and it’ll give you book recommendations. So I just kind of use it like a search engine. But also I use it as a search engine where I can input my own information to tailor the results to what I need.

Megan McKoy-Noe: Well, and I’ve been playing with it for a couple of months now as well, and I like asking it questions to make things easier. So before we got on to have this interview today, I asked it for advice as well on how to write a ChatGPT prompt, and here’s advice not written by a human. “Number one, be clear and specific. Make sure your prompt is clear and specific,” it repeats itself sometimes, “about what you want ChatGPT to do. Avoid using vague language or open-ended questions that could lead to ambiguous responses.” All right. “Number two, keep it concise,” and it repeats it again. “Avoid writing long paragraphs or multiple questions in a single prompt because it makes it hard for ChatGPT to understand.” Kyle, you were saying that you’re very nice and say please and thank you. And you know, you’re trying to preserve your place digitally in its heart. So the third piece of advice that ChatGPT says is “to use natural language as if you were speaking to a human.” Obviously, they’re trying to get us more comfortable with ChatGPT taking over the world. I think it’s interesting that it says to avoid technical jargon or complex language that ChatGPT might not understand. Provide context, and then test your prompts, which is what you were saying, to test it a couple different times. And then you can always, there’s a button in ChatGPT that says regenerate. So as long as it’s not talking about some creature that you’re recreating, I think it’s fine just to hit the regenerate and try it again.

Megan McKoy-Noe: When I was writing headlines, it wrote one headline, and I didn’t love it. But I didn’t want to give it more specific styles or anything, I just hit regenerate, and it gave me another option, which is nice. So yeah, just playing around with it a bit helps, and I love using it to find fresh approaches to restore. You don’t have to deal with a blank page anymore. You can just ask it to help get you started on a story. I use a thesaurus all the time, or historically have, to try to come up with new phrases. And so this is basically to me the same as using spell check or a thesaurus on steroids. Right? So it’s fun, but it’s not all sunshine and roses.

Kyle Allwine: No.

Megan McKoy-Noe: No. I wish. I wish it was. And one of the big examples of this was Bard, which was Google’s AI that they quickly launched when ChatGPT came out. They were like, “Oh, we’ve got one, too.” And they created an ad. Did you see that ad? And the downfall afterwards? Yeah, the chatbot was like, “Here’s an ad, and this is all these fun facts about space.” And some of the facts that it shared were wrong. And Google’s market value dropped by $100 billion the next day. So not great. Kyle, talk to me about the downside of AI fueled storytelling and relying too much on these tools.

Kyle Allwine: So I think a big one is, a few minutes ago you mentioned the jargon piece, and it doesn’t really understand emotion in writing. And what I mean by that is, is like the jargon. When we say lineworker or things like that, that’s when it gets confused because it scours the internet, and all it’s ever seen is the word lineman.

Megan McKoy-Noe: That gives you football players.

Kyle Allwine: Yeah. You know, and then it starts to get confused. But so the jargon piece is, is definitely a pitfall, right? And the emotion piece is another big one. I find that a lot of co-op communicators often worry about their writing like, “Oh, you know, is my writing technical enough,” or is it this, or is it that? But at the end of the day, it’s your voice, and/or it’s your co-ops voice. And every co-op does have a unique voice. And by using ChatGPT too much, you run the risk of sounding more like, you know, every other company in the world as opposed to your local neighborhood friendly co-op. And so you really do need to look at it and ask it in the prompts. Like, you know, I say like, you know, “What does a family need to know about this?” What does this need? Because otherwise it’ll give you, you know, what a business would like, or what. I’m not talking to businesses; I’m talking to families. I’m talking to grandma. I’m talking to dad. I’m talking to, you know, our neighbor.

Kyle Allwine: That’s who a co-op is writing for. So, but I have used it to take technical language and make it concise and make it more clear. And that can help you with that voice piece. But that is, I think, the main pitfall or downside of this. Similarly with Microsoft Designer. If you’re using a lot of AI generated images, you lose the authenticity of people in their community. So I saw this with a couple of organizations on Lineworker Appreciation Day posting a stock image of a lineworker, and the members being like, “Why didn’t you just post a picture of our lineworkers? Like, I don’t know who this person is.” So you can, if you use too many AI generated images or stock images, you’re going to run into an issue where you don’t look authentic. You’re just like every other brand that’s out there trying to get their attention. So you’ve got to be careful. But that’s why, I kind of disclaimer my stuff, I use it as a tool to help enhance the things that I’m already doing.

Megan McKoy-Noe: I really like that approach and I think it’s healthy to think about it as a tool, not as Hal or other –.

Kyle Allwine: Yeah.

Megan McKoy-Noe: That’s another old movie reference, that’s older than Iron Man.

Kyle Allwine: Or KITT.

Megan McKoy-Noe: Or KITT. Oh, dude. Yes. I’d be okay with KITT driving me around.

Kyle Allwine: I can hang. I’ll be all right.

Megan McKoy-Noe: KITT was a car For those of you listening who are unaware of Knight Rider.

Kyle Allwine: You can ask ChatGPT for the best episodes, and I guarantee it’ll give you the best episodes that you should watch.

Megan McKoy-Noe: Well, Kyle, you summed up many of these ideas in a LinkedIn blog post titled “Five Ways a Co-op Communicator Can Use ChatGPT,” which was a lot of fun. It’s why I thought it’d be nice to talk to you today. Plus, I just enjoy our conversations. It’s always nice. We’ll link to that article when we post this podcast episode on our website at pioneer.coop/podcasts. But I was hoping you might be able to summarize – and you’ve shared a few of them already – but your favorite five ways that communicators can put ChatGPT as a tool and other AI based platforms to work for their utility.

Kyle Allwine: Definitely. So the first one I would say is to use it to make one piece of content into multiple types of content. So I don’t think I’ve ever met a board co-op communicator. We’re always pressed for time. We always have 9 million things we could do. I’ve talked to a lot of co-op communicators who are like, I’d love to start a LinkedIn page. We have a bunch of people retiring, and I just don’t know where to start. We’ll let ChatGPT do it. Let Microsoft Designer make the post for you to take the things you’re already making and just tweak them for an audience that is people that don’t work for you yet. So that’s a great one, right? To just use it to make multiple different types of content. I think another one is people are not super great about SEO right now in co-op world. We haven’t had to worry about SEO.

Megan McKoy-Noe: Search engine optimization, for folks who don’t have enough abbreviations in their lives.

Kyle Allwine: So if you’re a broadband co-op and you’re trying to get members to sign-up for your service, you’re now trying to sell stuff. So you need to kind of focus more on search engine optimization. Ask ChatGPT to rewrite your article, so it’s more SEO friendly. Another one is hashtags. So it’s always hard to find what hashtags should you be using on what platform, which ones are trending right now. Ask ChatGPT. It can take your content, and it can give you hashtags based on that because the last thing you also want to do is give hashtags that are not configured for your content. Because then Facebook and others are going to just not show your content, even if you’re putting it with the right hashtags. Because it’s conflicting with their messaging. And the last two things is, I would really just say that you can use it to make your email headlines, and your teasers and, you know, all those kinds of things that are just like one-offs. And the last one I would say is, like I mentioned a few minutes ago, ask it as you’re developing things like a crisis communications plan. Ask it, “Hey, if there’s a tornado, what will a reporter ask me?” And then you’ve got a reporter asking you questions, except it’s ChatGPT. And then you can ask it, “Does this answer sound authentic?” Answer that question. Does this you know, and you can kind of use that to go through those things to really develop that crisis communications plan. So I think those are kind of the top five ways that I’ve found to use ChatGPT over the last few months.

Megan McKoy-Noe: I really like that. And balance it, especially when you’re talking to people in the workplace about it, balance it with review, editorial review. Because ChatGPT doesn’t actually know anything. It’s just pulling it, right? We’re creating this whole persona and naming it and all this, which is lovely and terrifying. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t know anything. It’s just Googling for information, or not Googling, that would be Bard. But you know, binging, is that a verb yet? Maybe it will be. Searching for information, right. And while there is accurate information out there, there’s also very factually inaccurate information out there, too, that it can pull. So I think it’s also important to balance it out and make sure, you know, if it’s safety information, if it’s, you know, especially electrical safety information or, you know, tips for making the most of your broadband connection or anything like that, have somebody that actually knows the technology, review it. Have you, as the communicator, your utility, reviewed it to make sure it is factually accurate? Because I think if we lean into it too much, we forget that it doesn’t actually know all this stuff. It’s just, as you said, it’s a tool. It’s just searching, and there could be some lies. It’s like two truths and a lie. You have to ferret out what is actually, you know, right.

Kyle Allwine: People always give three truths, but just three outrageous ones. And then whichever one someone picks, if they think it’s a lie, I want them to just win so they feel better about themselves, so that –

Megan McKoy-Noe: Ahh. You’re always thinking of others. Yeah. Kyle, how do you get yourself, like, excited about ChatGPT? Is there a way that you break the ice with folks when you’re talking about it?

Kyle Allwine: Yes. Well, I asked ChatGPT for some electricity puns, like “I’m amped up for this conversation.” Or “Let’s get watt you need.” Or “I’m feeling a spark of inspiration.”

Megan McKoy-Noe: Oh, the spark of inspiration.

Kyle Allwine: “I’m a big fan of electricity. It really lights up my life.”

Megan McKoy-Noe: Oh. Oh, okay. Well, that’s a good example of if you have – like, I’m always looking for dad jokes to put into scripts for other people to read. So are you saying I could just ask ChatGPT for a list of dad jokes about marketing or communications?

Kyle Allwine: Oh my goodness, you could.

Megan McKoy-Noe: Oh dear. I just don’t, I don’t have a comeback for this because I’m not using ChatGPT right now.

Kyle Allwine: Resistance is futile, Megan.

Megan McKoy-Noe: Picard is rolling over in his, not even grave yet. He just keeps making more shows. But wow. Thank you for that.

Kyle Allwine: I’m hurts that you don’t feel the same way.

Megan McKoy-Noe: This is too much. It’s too much. Yeah. Thanks.

Kyle Allwine: You’re welcome.

Megan McKoy-Noe: So. Well, before I let you go, do you have any last bits of advice for utility communicators that are debating how to use or avoid AI in the workplace? Anything that we haven’t covered?

Kyle Allwine: The only thing that I would say is I would encourage them to just play with it, to just test it, try it, see what works for you. If it works for your workflow and helps out, great. If it doesn’t, that’s fine. But I have certainly found that in my experience, I never have enough time to do everything. And, you know, whether it’s writing an email copy for new member email series or, you know, a fact sheet on rolling outages. Let someone else help you, you know what I mean?

Megan McKoy-Noe: Something else.

Kyle Allwine: Well, I’m saying [inaudible] ChatGPT or Pioneer. Or, you know, allow resources to help you because a lot of times that one person co-op communicator office feels lonely, and you feel like you’re never going to be able to get it all done. But with tools like ChatGPT and others, you know, let those people in there because it’ll magnify your impact.

Megan McKoy-Noe: Yeah, I love that, Kyle. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story with utility pioneers. He is Kyle Allwine from Northern Neck Electric Cooperative. And I’m your host, Megan McKoy-Noe, at Pioneer Utility Resources. And until we talk or chat again, keep telling your story.

Outro: StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a communications cooperative that is built to share your story. StoryConnect is engineered by Lucas Smith of Lucky Sound Studio.