For those of us old enough to remember a time before computers, dire predictions of the future saw robots taking over menial jobs, with factories and fields full of metal humanoids doing what we could do but better and faster. While this has come to pass to some extent, we have been taken somewhat by surprise by the creativity that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is demonstrating.
ChatGPT changes the game
It is the release of ChatGPT (with Google’s Bard hot on its heels, but as yet ChatGPT is the main chatbot we’ll be discussing here) that has been the game-changer for creatives who had believed that solely humans could create and invent. It seems like every day a new outlandish task has been invented for ChatGPT to conquer in order to demonstrate its powers of invention – someone asking it to write a love-letter to their toaster for example was particularly memorable – ‘you are the bread to my butter’ and ‘my love for you is hotter than the toast you make’ were some zingers it conjured up for that one.
It may be tempting to think that ChatGPT can take over writing for your business’ website. It’s true that it can churn out a fairly coherent facsimile of a blog, however, this is as far as it will go. Here are a few reasons why we don’t think relying on ChatGPT for your website content is a great idea just yet:
- Information is outdated
ChatGPT is trained on the internet up to 2021 – and as we are all fully aware, there is much that has changed since then. If you’re looking for up-to-date, relevant facts, you will have to do your own research
- Check your sources!
ChatGPT has been coined ‘Autocorrect on steroids’ thanks to the way the programming works – it takes the prompts in the questions it is asked and puts together an answer based on the millions of words it has been trained on. It can’t tell and doesn’t know if its sources are correct, therefore you could find your blog unknowingly peddling misinformation.
- Bland and boring
One of the consequences of being trained on millions of words is that the resulting prose has been smoothed out to such an extent that it has no personality, just a very bland tone that’s neither engaging nor interesting. As the whole point of having blogs on your website is to engage and inform your clients, it is counterproductive to let AI produce something that will do the opposite.
- Incapable of original thought
Who knows what will happen in the future, however as yet AI is incapable of coming up with anything original – it is only able to regurgitate what it has found on the pre-2021 internet. Its tone and content are borrowed so you are only ever going to receive a reworded version of something that’s already available. Only a real writer can produce something that’s original and specific to you and your business.
ChatGPT is a fun interface that can genuinely deliver useful answers providing the questions asked are very specific and not open to interpretation. It will struggle in its current form, however, to do away with the need for content writers.
Your website should be engaging, have its own ‘voice’ and personality and leave your readers wanting to read and learn more. ChatGPT is currently the blogging equivalent of muzak – bland, and untroublesome, but so unengaging, your readers will be unlikely to want to read on.
Want to give your blogs a personality? Our experienced and knowledgeable copywriters can bring life to your writing, get in touch to find out how.