Autonomous Writing Futures

In this chapter (see Table 4.1), we provide a brief history of virtual assistants, emerging as technocultural entities eventually to serve a role in writing and work practices. We illustrate how automation changes writing collaboration between humans and nonhuman agents, leading to “superteams” (Deloitte) and the seamless integration of AI and other automated processes into workplace teams (Seeber et al., in Information & Management 57: 2020). As AI writing advances to include further communication practices through Natural Language Generation (NLG), we discuss the concept of cowriting with AI systems. We explore how literacy practices must adapt to include AI literacy, discussing the role of professional and technical communication (PTC) educators and professionals in meeting these goals. We emphasize the issue of changing roles and risks which arise as innovation advances before appropriate ethical and regulatory regimes are put in place and how AI bias has led to human rights violations. We provide case studies of how emerging technologies are inculcated in dataspheres that have inappropriately excluded racialized people through the rise of black boxes and exclusionary algorithms. AI Explainability and Transparency have been flagged as necessary principles for developing this technology, with sectors calling for protocols to explain highly complex tech for human actors.