Links from around the web -- June 10, 2024
[Podcast] Mastering AI-enhanced Content Creation using RAG | Inside Tech Comm with Zohra Mutabanna | June 2023 | LINK
Retrieval Augmented Generation, or RAG, can help AI tools generate more accurate, usable content. This podcast does a nice job explaining the approach while also acknowledging that the first AI-assisted draft is still a long way away from being publication ready. See my post Gathering source material for context input for more details.
Everything You Need to Know About OpenAPI | Speakeasy API | May 16, 2024 | LINK
This is an excellent tutorial for developing an OpenAPI specification. In many ways, it supplants the Step-by-step OpenAPI tutorial in my own API docs course. It will be interesting to see how AI transforms the coding and syntax wrangling with OpenAPI specification development. At the very least, this info could augment your AI chat as you use AI to help create each of these sections in your specification.
Technical writing is not a dead-end job, it’s a landing pad | passo.uno | May 29, 2024 | LINK
There are a lot of Reddit posts from people wondering if tech writing is a dying field now that AI can do so much. I’m surprised and relieved that even using AI tools as much as possible, replacement of my tech writing role seems unlikely. I still have a seemingly endless number of tech writing bugs to tackle, and producing documentation is still a highly valuable role and skill.
LavaCon 2024 to Focus on Content as a Business Asset | XML Press | May 30, 2024 | LINK
It’s neat to see Lavacon take place in Portland this year. Last year it was in San Diego and before that in New Orleans. This conference has been consistent year over year, in part because Jack Molisani knows how to deliver a great conference experience.
[Podcast] Pulse check on AI: May, 2024 | Scriptorium | May 2024 | LINK
This podcast pushes back against the AI hype, even dismissing AI as a tool for content creation. I think RAG techniques can overcome many of the hallucination issues, but I like the hosts’ balanced and cautious perspective, especially noting the unresolved intellectual property issues.
About Tom Johnson
I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.
If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in the tech comm, be sure to subscribe to email updates below. You can also learn more about me or contact me. Finally, note that the opinions I express on my blog are my own points of view, not that of my employer.