CoWrite is a Chart feature available to all Chart subscribers. If you have access to reports and/or dashboards, you are a Chart subscriber.
What is CoWrite?
CoWrite helps you write high-quality data stories by generating text that explains your data visualizations in clear, engaging language. You can use it with mySidewalk’s data or with data you’ve uploaded.
Key Features:
Generates text to explain your data visualizations
Works with both mySidewalk and user-uploaded data
Accelerates the writing process, helping you create data stories faster
How to Use CoWrite
Currently, CoWrite is available in Chart for all visualizations
except for correlations and custom charts.
We are continuing to optimize CoWrite outputs for maps. In the coming days and weeks, expect map outputs to improve, including the ability to reference normalized data.
Accessing CoWrite:
Navigate to a Report or Dashboard page.
Hover over a data visualization and click the CoWrite icon.
Choosing a Prompt:
A form with suggested prompts will appear.
Choose from the prompts provided, or click "Write a Custom Prompt" to enter your own.
Generating Text:
After selecting a prompt, CoWrite generates text in a new block above the visualization.
Review and edit the text to ensure accuracy and relevance.
Iterating on Results:
If unsatisfied, delete the text and generate a new draft.
You can also keep part of the original result and generate more text to refine your story.
Tips for Best Results
Review for accuracy: CoWrite is a powerful tool, but it's important to review the text for correctness and alignment with your goals.
Edit for clarity: The AI may produce verbose or repetitive outputs. Trim the text to ensure clarity and conciseness.
Customize prompts: If needed, you can modify suggested prompts to get more targeted results.
CoWrite Capabilities and Limitations
Capabilities:
Generates narratives for data visualizations
Suitable for reports, presentations, and social media posts
Helps with quick content drafting
Limitations:
CoWrite cannot perform complex math or calculations.
It may occasionally produce inaccurate outputs, so manual review is essential.
CoWrite only has access to the data within the visualization. It cannot access the whole mySidewalk data library.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is mySidewalk's approach to the ethical and responsible use of AI?
mySidewalk believes that anyone who cares about a place should be able to use data to create positive change. We also believe that the thoughtful application of AI to community data makes this possible.
Read our AI principles in full here or on our website. If you'd like to discuss further, please reach out to your customer representative or email us at [email protected].
I'd like to learn more about how CoWrite works technically.
Sure, the summary of our approach to building CoWrite is a great starting place. And if you have additional questions, just let us know!
Will data or data conclusions in a CoWrite output always be accurate?
Often, but we can't guarantee always. CoWrite passes a summary of your data visualization to OpenAI to help facilitate data accuracy and reduce the likelihood of hallucination. However, CoWrite may occasionally produce inaccurate data or conclusions. We strongly recommend that you review CoWrite outputs for accuracy and appropriateness.
Why do outputs consistently score at a higher reading level than directed?
CoWrite (like most generative AI) frequently underrates reading levels.
While we continue experimenting with strategies to systematically optimize CoWrite's reading level capabilities, a couple of things you can do:
1) Ask CoWrite for a lower reading level than you actually want, and
2) Use a tool like Readability Analyzer to evaluate and refine outputs until they meet your standards.
Why can't CoWrite meet target word and sentence count guidelines?
CoWrite is directionally good at responding to length-related instructions, but it will rarely hit specific word or sentence count targets. There are a couple of reasons for this.
First, AI conceptualizes the world in tokens rather than words or sentences. In other words, its unit of measurement is different from ours.
Second, generative AI is notoriously verbose and is prone to overusing certain words and phrases.
Often, you'll find that simply editing outputs for brevity and repetitiveness will take the writing from a 6/10 to at least an 8/10.
What are the best practices for writing my own custom prompts?
Great questions! We have a whole tip sheet on that.
Where can I provide feedback on CoWrite?
Please give us feedback on CoWrite using the link, which will appear at the end of each newly generated text block.
You can also share your feedback with your mySidewalk representative on how this tool might better meet your needs.
Using CoWrite responsibly
At this time, mySidewalk uses OpenAI to build AI features and products. Like all current foundation models, OpenAI’s models have been trained on large swaths of the Internet, including websites, news articles, books, research articles, and more. Because this data reflects societal biases, the models can have racial, gender, cultural, and other biases, too. OpenAI is taking steps to address the potential for harm, and mySidewalk closely follows their progress. We also recognize the responsibility of our company, customers, and individual users to do our part. As it has always been, it is only through collective effort that we can combat biases of all kinds. That is why, for the ethical use of AI, we must all work together. With this in mind, we encourage our customers to:
Make sure you use CoWrite in accordance with your organization’s guidelines around the use of AI.
Manually review each AI-generated result for accuracy, appropriateness, and compliance with your organization’s guidance on acceptable use.
Let audiences for your data stories know if the content was generated by AI.
Inform mySidewalk of AI-generated results that include inaccuracies, biased ideas or language, or otherwise concern you for any reason.
Read about the steps mySidewalk is taking to combat bias, as well as our full set of principles for the ethical use of AI here.