Chances are, you’ve already read content that you assumed was written by a human – but wasn’t. Who knows, it could have been that article about the recent breakthroughs of AI writing app ChatGPT.
Will Artificial Intelligence writing software immediately replace all those writers with faces and fingers? Not likely. But to help understand how AI writing apps both help and hinder (at this point at least), here are some guidelines.
THE POSSIBILITIES
Initial Topic Research AI content isn’t generated out of thin air. The apps do topic research online like you do, but can cover far more ground than you have time to.
It’s Quick and Cheap Is your business model to simply flood the web with your company’s content? AI is helpful if scale, rather than writing quality, is your main priority.
It’s a Starting Point Maybe you let ChatGPT do its thing initially. But you consider its output as just source material. Then select, rearrange, and rewrite ‘til you’re happy with it.
Localized Versions You can write the initial article with location-specific references. Then let your AI writing app create additional versions for other geographic locations.
Brief, Simple Content Artificial intelligence writing programs do best with content that covers a clearly defined short subject.
Grammatical Correctness You can typically expect AI writing apps to get grammar and sentence structure right. They can also do a spelling and grammar check of your own writing.
Topic Suggestions Today’s AI writing software can come up with a list of content ideas regarding a certain topic. Then it’s up to you to choose the ones human readers might be interested in.
THE LIMITATIONS
Falsities as Facts As AI writing apps search the web for info, they may not discern between good sources and bad ones, or verify third-party data. Misinformation is passed along as confidently as true facts.
Google Hates It Your favorite search engine considers AI writing spammy. It breaches Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, and may be penalized in the rankings as low-quality content.
Plagiarism Issues AI writing software has been known to scrape and lightly-reword chunks of other content it finds online. Sure, human writers can be guilty of this too, but it’s unacceptable either way.
Incoherence AI content is not always clear, well-organized or articulate. That’s especially true of longer pieces, and more complex subjects. The apps can’t always string together info in the most logical manner.
Over Optimization ChatGPT can easily weave keywords into web content for SEO purposes. But sometimes it goes too far, with writing that makes search engines happy, but is nonsensical to readers
Superficial SEO The other SEO issue is AI software that, say, focuses on a product’s features without truly understanding the buyer’s need within the context of their own circumstances.
Multiple Iterations AI content is only as good as the initial ‘prompts’ you type in. You may have to re-word those prompts over several iterations to get close to what you’re looking for.
Human Connection Humans are still better than robots for the nuanced understanding of emotions. We can relate to, and empathize with, people with a problem, perhaps to persuade them to buy our solution.
E-A-T AI writing programs lack the professional credentials and credibility to satisfy today’s expectations regarding Expertise, Authority, and Trust.
Lack of Creativity An AI writing app can surely write a headline or an opening sentence. But it can’t match a creative professional’s ability to grab people’s imaginations, or make them curious enough to keep reading.
Reader Unfriendliness While machines can write running paragraph text, they’re not that good (yet) at breaking content down into small bite-size nuggets, for short-attention-span readers on business websites.
THE CONCLUSION
A recent post from the SEO blog Search Engine Land suggests that AI should be considered a writing assistant, not an outsourcing solution.
Based on the pro’s and con’s above, that’s good advice. Avoid the temptation of letting AI writing apps do all your work. Because you still have some things to offer that it lacks – and may never have.
