There’s not a professional writer alive right now who isn’t afraid that they could be replaced by AI.
Platforms like LinkedIn and Reddit are full of comments from content writers lamenting that their clients have ditched their services on the basis that ChatGPT can write blogs, social media posts, and reports in seconds. Thankfully, this hasn’t happened to me yet, but I know it is just a question of time.
So, while I was putting the washing in the machine today, I started thinking about some of the reasons that businesses may prefer to employ a human being to write their content.
Generic versus Original Content
And it came down to this – it’s a matter of horses for courses. ChatGPT is fantastic at producing ideas and content on generic subjects, for example, Mother’s Day gift ideas or 10 reasons why you might need a specialist financial services company. And, of course, in the age of digital media, there’s a constant 24/7 demand for this type of content.
But it can’t compete with a good professional writer in terms of thinking outside the box, playing with different ideas to fulfil the brief to a client’s satisfaction, and troubleshooting if the first draft isn’t quite what is required.
Which started me thinking that ChatGPT is like the fast food version of content writing: it’s fast, cheap, and it fills the hole, but don’t expect anything that stands out or is dazzlingly original.
Does ChatGPT have a sense of humour?
Regardless of how many time ChatGPT is updated with new data, it can only be as good as the information that is fed into it. It doesn’t have the ability to look at a situation and think of a solution using the lens of years of life experience as well as professional experience.
For example, let’s say you asked ChatGPT to write an article about the UK economy in the style of The Financial Times. No problem. But then, imagine if you asked it to write the same article with some dark humour thrown in, and perhaps a lighter feel, say, in a style somewhere between a mainstream newspaper and a lifestyle magazine. I’ll wait.
Which brings me back to the washing machine. I came up with the headline and structure for this blog while I was putting on a load of mixed colours and thinking about what I should have for lunch. That’s how the creativity of the human brain works. While it is undoubtedly slower than AI, there’s a certain magic in that process which no amount of big data can replace.
If you need intelligent, attention-grabbing website content for your business, get in touch.