Grok AI and the recovery of pen and paper

General
1

I like to write my notes down in cursive, but in order to store my notes, I need to digitize them. Tech solutions haven’t quite worked yet. Nebo on an ipad is terrible, OCR for cursive hasn’t worked, and the reMarkable, which is the best option I have found, is still a gadget. What if I just want to read with pen and paper nearby?

I did an experiment with Grok, the twitter AI. I wrote down a test in my best handwriting on filler paper:

Scanned Document
Scanned Document1920×2369 271 KB

and then asked Grok to transcribe it into Markdown formatting. I wanted to see if he (it?) could understand the formatting. I told him to make the underlined words italics. I also included a table just to see what would happen. Here’s the results and then how it would work formatted.

This is a test of Grok's transcription
abilities on plain notebook paper. I
am very careful with my handwriting.

Will it recognize paragraph breaks?
If I tell it to, will it interpret underlining
as _italics_?

- Can it do nested lists?
  - I don't know
    - sublist
    - sublist two

How about a table?

| Country | Burgers | Hot Dogs |
|---------|---------|----------|
| USA     | 1,000   | 550      |
| England | 900     | 432      |
| France  | 835     | 490      |

Here’s how it formats. I think this is very good. Only missed one word, I think.

This is a test of Grok’s transcription
abilities on plain notebook paper. I
am very careful with my handwriting.

Will it recognize paragraph breaks?
If I tell it to, will it interpret underlining
as italics?

  • Can it do nested lists?
    • I don’t know
      • sublist
      • sublist two

How about a table?

Country Burgers Hot Dogs
USA 1,000 550
England 900 432
France 835 490

Pretty good, eh?

2

Very interesting. I am trying to fight my inner curmudgeon regarding AI. I have used it for language translation for simple texts ( I have had four students plopped in my class from Ukraine and three from Ghana with no way to speak to them) but I am hesitant to use it for more nuanced translations for more detailed work. I have discovered it IS useful for making lists and tables for easy comparison of information I have already been able to think through.