AI for Public Speaking, really?

Everybody is going mad about AI today. It looks like if you don’t talk about AI you’re out of the game. The same happened with many innovations that reached market maturity in the past. Nothing new.

So why talking about AI in a newsletter about Public Speaking, which I firmly believe is an exquisitely human endeavour: Humans talking to other Humans to share a Mission?

Use it to write your talk? I don’t think so

In spite of that and as many innovations, it can be used with purpose as long as it’s not misused. Imagine asking AI to write a moving talk for you. In the first instance you would get a rather dull output, sort of an average of all that the AI - that is the Language Models like chatGPT and Bard out there - was fed to in the training phase.

You might get better results with some prompt engineering, a new sort of activity which purpose is to learn how to ask questions to a language model in the most appropriate way for the intended result. With prompt engineering you would learn to ask well formulated questions to the AI.

Instead of asking just

write a talk about ocean sustainability for me

you might ask something like

Act as a public speaking expert and write a 5 minutes talk on ocean sustainability with the following talk thesis: we need to mobilise citizens to take action for the ocean Keep into account the following points 1. the ocean is collapsing much faster than expected 2. the impact of human activities and particularly of CO2 emissions and plastic pollution are evident 3. awareness is not enough, we need action 4. people are much more powerful to achieve seemingly impossible objectives than what they believe 5. people can multiply their impact 1,000-fold and more Use an urgent yet optimistic tone.  

I actually tried this, and aside of getting a 500 words talk - which is rather shorter than the 5 minutes I asked for - I got a ridiculously fake result, check it out, here I show the results to both prompts.

Any other way to use it?

I have been experimenting further and I have found one application in which AI can be really useful even in the context of public speaking, where Human connection is key for the purpose of having an impact and moving audiences to action.

I used AI - chatGPT 4.0 in particular - to help me plan the content of some of my posts (not this one). It helped me brainstorm ideas and structure, which I then built upon when I was writing my articles in my own words and with my voice.

Definitely not a replacement as much as an enhancer, allowing me to multiply my impact even further. As long as I manage to remain aware of its creative limitations, I am able to use it for what it is really good at, that is helping me as a zealous if not-so-creative assistant.

Imagine I ask chatGPT the following:

think like a copywriter for coaching on public speaking.Give me the structure for a post about using AI to craft powerful talks that move audiences to action.

The result is rather impressive, try it yourself or check it in the same document I mentioned above. The suggestion I got was full of ideas on how AI can be used to enhance a speaker’s talk. Some were too far fetched or plain ridiculous, but others were rather interesting and useful, for example:

1. use it for audience analysis
2. assist in structuring a talk
3. analyse data sources to create compelling data-driven narratives
4. analyse successful talks to extract best practices

Sure that’s all stuff that I could have come up with myself, but ChatGPT rally accelerated the process.

I’m not sure if I will ever write that post, but definitely these ideas are worth considering. If AI can help accelerate tedious processes like online research for data or names or examples, why not use it? Beware, always make sure to verify the suggested results, particularly when looking for factual information.

(afterthought) Another interesting way to use AI is to ask it to create content, and then refer to it in your writing, to make sure you don’t write like that and you don’t sound like a robot!

Conclusion

My recommendation is the following:

1. do not dismiss AI and Language Models like chatGPT and Bard as an assistance to your talk preparation
2. use AI for what it is good at, that is gathering information, analysing data and synthesising it - however always keep an eye on the results
3. keep for yourself the part that you are good at - both personally and as a Human. Which is creativity, empathy and connection.

In a sentence (or two actually):

Remember that you are the Human who can do those exquisitely Human things that a machine is not able to replicate, such as establishing a connection with other Humans, talking to their hearts, and moving them to action for a Mission greater than each one of us. Aside of that, use machines for what they are good for, to help you multiply your positive impact on the world, as long as you always make sure your message comes directly from your heart.

Keep doing your incredible work as Changemakers and Impact Leaders. Talk for Impact, and move audiences to action!

That’s all for now, thank you for reading.
Leonardo

Talk for Impact is a platform for Impact Leaders and Changemakers, with a newsletter packed full of suggestions and other resources on how to deliver great talks that move audiences to action. You can share and subscribe to the newsletter and podcast below. And if you feel ready to work one-to-one with me reach out for a 20' discovery chat with me (in English, Spanish or Italian.)

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