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The hot-button issue is on everyone’s mind: what is the state of artificial intelligence? Once only an idea borne from science fiction, AI has now entered the realm of reality! And with it comes some exciting (and not so exciting) changes in how we develop content. You’ve likely already seen some surprisingly impressive photos, illustrations, audio, and writing samples created by AI. If you didn’t know any better, AI can produce content that’s hard to distinguish from human-created content. As a result, the world of content marketing and web development has begun embracing some elements of artificial intelligence. However, it’s not all happiness and sunshine; with artificial intelligence’s exceptional advantages, there are some glaring drawbacks.
Artificial intelligence is transforming the way marketers create content. From simple blog posts and SEO pages to detailed web content and online advertisements, AI significantly contributes to the articles you consume online (not so much with this article, however). Here are just some of the ways AI is helping content writers do their job:
When pressed up against deadlines, with a dozen more articles to create, AI can provide an additional set of hands for creating content. However, this isn’t to say artificial intelligence should be writing articles for you. While we’ve seen plenty of marketers come to replace human writing with AI outright, this often backfires as AI content doesn’t tend to be “unique.” As such, we prefer to use AI for short descriptions, bulleted lists, client research, etc. Ultimately, relying on AI to cover some busy work while human writers focus on the meat of content helps free up time and create content faster.
If you write any amount of content, you’re all too familiar with the bane of a writer’s productivity: writer’s block! Unfortunately, writer’s block can leave you paralyzed for hours at a time, unable to produce worthwhile content. Thankfully, AI content creation can help. Feeding specific prompts to an AI tool can spin half-baked ideas into fully articulated thoughts and topics. As a writer, you can use what your AI tool provides as a jump board into the remainder of your writing and break through mental blocks by force!
You wouldn’t believe what some AI tools have the power to write. Not only do programs like ChatGPT or Bard have incredible learning capabilities and functions, but there are AI writing tools geared specifically towards writing for your niche or industry. Many of these tools come with additional templates or prompts, enabling writers to create and edit content more easily. For example, the AI program 309 Marketing utilizes, Jasper AI, can create short blog posts, product descriptions, social media posts, etc., with the minimal information you provide.
Are you looking at old, outdated articles on your website, not sure what to do with them? Perhaps you’ve written a new article or blog but feel it could use some “fluffing” in parts. Let AI take a look! AI tools are great for taking previously written content and adding, updating, editing, or creating related content. While we wouldn’t recommend using AI as a “final” check for your work, the right tools provide excellent editorial capabilities that you might have trouble providing for yourself.
As revolutionary as artificial intelligence can be, there are some significant drawbacks to an overreliance on these programs. AI content can get overly stale or sometimes be outright incorrect. No true passion or creativity goes into AI writing, either. While AI can be incredibly beneficial, it’s still something writers should use sparingly. Otherwise, you run into issues like:
According to LinkedIn in 2015, somewhere near 4.6 billion pieces of content were being produced daily; that’s an incredible amount! Now consider how much that number has likely increased with the introduction of AI; the mind boggles at the possibilities. All this to say, there’s already a ton of content being created online, and AI will keep pumping out more. If content creators aren’t careful, the internet will become inundated with articles that read the same as each other, with nothing unique to say.
Speaking of “nothing unique to say,” artificial intelligence still has difficulty capturing what makes great content great: the human element. Whether including personal stories, fun anecdotes, or a creative flare to your writing, AI simply cannot reproduce content in such a manner. And for human writers, this is excellent news; It means AI can’t push us out of a job (yet)! The emotional pull of writing helps content rank higher with search engines like Google or Bing. This makes sense in that someone reading an article is likely to stay and continue reading if they can relate on a personal level.
Artificial intelligence draws upon resources all across the web to provide writers with a wealth of information, features and capabilities. Ideally, when generating content, an AI program will use what other writers or industry professionals create and develop something entirely new yet reminiscent of its source. If writers aren’t careful, this content resemblance can delve into straight-up plagiarism! While AI never intends to copy content, it’s not perfect, nor does it have much concept of what’s plagiarized or not. If you don’t check behind what an AI program has written, you can get yourself into hot water with accidentally copied content.
If you’ve ever used an AI chatbot to have a conversation, you understand how they will say ANYTHING, which can sometimes be wildly wrong or off base. The same is true with many AI writing programs. Those creating these AI tools do their best to ensure their programs don’t feed users with fake facts, conspiracy theories, or fabricated sources. However, we cannot stress this enough: AI ISN’T PERFECT. When you let your AI run wild with writing, it might start to make some content up to stay fresh, unique, or prove its point. As human writers, it’s our job to catch these errors before they ever make it live on a blog or website.
The title of this blog says it all: Artificial Intelligence as a Tool. At 309 Marketing, we’ve gotten with the times and begun using AI to assist in some of our writing. Nevertheless, we think of AI as nothing more than a tool our team can use for their work. Our human writers use AI to help research topics, provide short sentences or descriptions, assist with content organization, and catch some grammatical mistakes. If there’s ever a section in our content with AI contribution, it has been heavily edited by our writers. And if you’re wondering, no, this article wasn’t written by AI (nice try!).
Since you can’t let AI do all the writing for you, let the 309 Marketing team lend a hand. Our expert content writers and SEO specialists understand how to create quality content that ranks. Otherwise, if it’s additional marketing assistance or web design you require, 309 Marketing has you covered. To learn more about our digital and traditional marketing services or for further questions about how we create content, call 309-213-9398.