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Freewrite 2.0 - From The Founder

June 01, 2023 | 3 min read

Today we are launching two huge improvements to the Freewrite experience. The first is Freewrite Plus. It's a new paid tier of Freewrite services that unlocks new features on both Freewrite devices and in Postbox. The second is version 2.0 of Freewrite Firmware that will be available to all Traveler and Smart Typewriter Gen3 devices. I couldn’t be more excited to welcome you all to the next phase of Freewrite’s growth.

Freewrite Plus is our first step in providing premium features on top of the core drafting experience we have been refining since the first Freewrite devices shipped in 2016. The fact is that our vision to create the ultimate drafting tool was realized long ago. Writers have been using Freewrite devices to double their hourly wordcount consistently. Nobody needs new features to be prolific. Yes, it’s true. But what we realized, and heard from you, is that some writers just want more flexibility to be able to adapt Freewrite to their writing workflow. This is where Freewrite Plus comes in.

For all those looking to squeeze every possible ounce of productivity out of their writing experience, Freewrite Plus is for you. Today we are launching with two new features, document uploading and advanced send key functionality – more will be added to the Plus plan as time goes on. Stay tuned.

Document uploading is one of the most requested features we’ve heard from you all over the years. We’ve always said, since Freewrite is a drafting machine, not an editing machine, why do you need to upload drafts? Just start a new draft on your device and piece it together with the old draft on your computer later during the edit process. This is still the recommendation for most but for those that want that extra level of convenience of working directly in a previously written draft, now you can with Freewrite Plus.

The second feature launching today adds more options for sending drafts directly from the device. With the new firmware you can hold the [send] key down and email a copy of the active draft to any address. This allows for quick sharing of a draft, without going to a computer, to an editor or collaborator, and even the ability to print directly from the device (with a newer printer that has its own email address).

We haven’t forgot about the core Freewrite experience either.

The new firmware landing on all Traveler and Smart Typewriter Gen3 devices has a completely overhauled writing backend that works flawlessly with drafts of any size, from 100 words to 1,000,000. It looks the same but under the hood it is completely rebuilt. Until now, we've had to recommend people to start a new draft as their word count eclipsed 10,000 in a single document. Truthfully it was a bit embarrassing for a product that was designed for long form drafting! No longer. Firmware version 2.0 works with drafts of any length seamlessly and without slow down regardless of word count. Here we go!

Since 2014, we've dreamt of creating the best productivity tools for the writing experience. In that time, we've built 3 generations of the Freewrite device that started it all, now known as the Smart Typewriter. We launched Traveler, a smaller, folding version with the same distraction-free writing experience. Just last year, we crowdfunded Alpha, the simplest product in our writing tool lineup. We built Sprinter for quick writing sessions in the browser. We created Writing Time Fridays where thousands of people every week receive a writing prompt in their inbox. And all along the way we have been refining the product experience with improved cloud software in Postbox and new firmware delivered seamlessly over the air.

Over the years, some have complained that we may have not always been as responsive as they would like. They aren’t wrong but please believe me that it wasn’t for lack of trying. The truth is, we have never had more than one customer service person (sometimes it was zero!) and we all were heads down building. For many years, we were in survival mode. Now in our 9^th year of operation, I can say with complete confidence that our team is better than ever and I’m just as excited today as I was when the OG Hemingwrite concept first went viral in the fall of 2014.

Thank you for coming with us on this journey and your support. Update your devices to the new firmware and give Freewrite Plus a try with a two-week free trial!

- Adam, Freewrite Founder and CEO

The Set Up

The 2024 study recruited 293 writers to write an eight-sentence “micro” story. The participants were split into three groups:

Writing by human brainpower only
The opportunity to get one AI-generated idea to inspire their writing
The opportunity to get up to five AI-generated ideas to inspire their writing

Then, 600 evaluators judged how creative these short stories were. The results confirmed a widely accepted idea but also offered a few surprising findings.

Prompts from AI Can Jumpstart the Creative Process

Right off the bat, the reviewers rated the AI-guided stories as being more original, better written, and more enjoyable to read. (Interesting to note that they did not find them funnier than the fully human-inspired stories.)

This actually isn’t that surprising. Most writers know the “blank page dread” at the beginning of a project. Even as I write this, I can’t help but wonder, “If I had been tasked with writing an eight-sentence story, what the heck would I have written about?”

Many writers share this sense of needing to pick the “right” story to tell. And that uniquely human concept of perfectionism can end up actually inhibiting our creative process.

A prompt, then, can help us quickly clear this mental hurdle. To test this, I’ll give you one, courtesy of ChatGPT: “Write a story about a teenager who discovers a mysterious journal that reveals hidden secrets about their town, leading them on an unexpected adventure to uncover the truth.”

Can you feel your creative juices flowing already?

Since its release, AI has been celebrated for its ability to assist in idea generation; and this study confirms how effective using artificial intelligence in this way can be for writers — some, it seems, more than others.

AI-Generated Ideas Helped Less Creative Writers More

It doesn’t feel great to judge a writer’s creative prowess, but for this study, researchers needed to do just that. Prior to writing their short stories, the writers took a test to measure their creativity.

Researchers found that those considered less creative did substantially better when given AI-generated ideas — to the point where getting the full five ideas from AI “effectively equalizes the creativity scores across less and more creative writers.”

This isn’t the case just for writing. Another study by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship WZ also found that AI tools most benefit employees with weaker skills.

So is AI leveling the playing field between okay and great writers? It seems it may be. But before we lament, there’s one more finding that proves using AI isn’t all perks.

AI-Aided Stories Were More Similar — And Needed to Be Credited

The researchers took a step back to look at all the AI-supported stories collectively. And what did they find?

The AI-assisted stories were more similar as a whole, compared to the fully human-written stories.

Additionally, when reviewers were told that a story was enhanced by an AI idea, they “imposed an ownership penalty of at least 25%,” even indicating that “the content creators, on which the models were based, should be compensated.”

This leads us to that all-important question about AI-assisted work: who owns the content?

According to Originality.AI, an AI and plagiarism detector, “When there’s a combination of AI and human-generated elements, the human elements may receive copyright protection if they meet the requirements.”

So right now, if a writer uses AI to generate ideas — but writes the content themselves — they retain rights to the work.

However, Originality.AI even admits that “the legal system is having a hard time keeping up” with the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence. Time will only tell what AI regulations will look like in a few years.

What Does an AI-Assisted Literary Future Look Like?

The researchers from the University of Exeter Business School study raise an interesting point about what the future landscape for writers may look like. If droves of authors begin using AI to come up with ideas, we may end up with a lot of well-written yet dime-a-dozen stories.

So will human beings choose the easier, but less diverse, path? Or will we stick to fighting through writer’s block armed with nothing but our own brain?

Or, a third option: can we somehow learn to harness AI to supercharge our writing process without sacrificing the wholly unique creativity that infuses human creation?

That’s one question that even ChatGPT can’t answer.

Editor's Note: Artificial intelligence may have already transformed writing, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be in control of your own words. Read Astrohaus Founder Adam Leeb's statement on AI and privacy.

Learn more

August 22, 2024 • 8 min read

Reimagining the Future of Storytelling in a World with AI

While AI has capabilities that range from coding to image generation, the model that excites — and terrifies — writers is the LLM. It won’t be long before we see the world’s first blockbuster novel, written entirely by an LLM. What does this mean for art, and writers in particular? Is it all doom and gloom? The answer is, of course, more complicated than yes or no.