Canva Docs & Magic Write

Daily Resource / December 13th, 2022

After yesterday’s post about AI, I feel like cannot escape it now. That afternoon I was reading You are not a Gadget and much of the chapter was on the associated problems of artificial intelligence and algorithms. This morning I opened my email and there was another edtech company sharing their latest AI-driven project (more on that in a future blog). Then Canva added Magic Write. I had already signed up for the beta for Canva Docs as I wanted to explore how to create docs using Canva and the tools I lovingly call “Canva-ception,” designing a graphic inside the Doc and then adding it directly (see the gif to the right). Magic Write though is another idea completely.

Like their Text-to-Image tool launch this Fall, Magic Write uses AI to anticipate and write content based on user input terms. Their exam is apt: “A list of five ways to convey information effectively” becomes a list of five top suggestions for conveying information. This outsources the small tasks that a writer does on a daily basis and has AI do them. For many reasons I appreciate this change, just like I appreciate tools like Chatgpt from OpenAI, because they give education another toolset for student learning and engagement.

However, I do have some real questions about plagiarism and the use of AI-generated text as our own. What happens when two users have the same query and produce the same text, or at least very similar text, then publish it on their timelines, blogs, social media, etc.? Do we credit the AI for writing the text or building the image? When does the writing style of the AI get better than human-generated style? When writing a novel, does a writer list the AI as a co-writer? Does the AI deserve royalties? Definitely, things to think about in the coming weeks/months/years as AI becomes a common, openly used tool in many organizations.

Check out Canva’s Doc and Magic Write programs for more information.