We’re sure you’ve heard of ChatGPT by now, but even if you haven’t, we’ll break down what AI (artificial intelligence) is, how it’s impacting the digital marketing world, and whether or not you should let artificial intelligence “take over”.

A branch of computer science that aims to create machines that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and language understanding.

From ROI, email marketing, graphics and digital ads, to the use of chatbots, lead qualifications, graphics, and the controversy of AI content creation, AI is in more places than you think…But is this a good thing, or a bad thing, and how can you as a business stay ahead of the curve?

To learn more about all the different ways artificial intelligence can work with digital marketing, check out this blog!

Just as with everything else, AI use in the content creation world is fraught with opinions, most split between people that love ChatGPT and others that either hate it, don’t understand it, or have their doubts. A lot of content creators are concerned how AI can hurt their business and, well, they’re right – just not in the ways you’re thinking.

First, we need to understand ChatGPT, the leading AI content generator. ChatGPT is more of a probability engine. When we understand how it functions, it begins to look a lot more like a useful tool and a lot less like a machine trying to mimic human intelligence until it learns enough to take over the world- *Or maybe that’s just the AI talking. Muahahaha!*

ChatGPT uses the scans of past language patterns to predict the probability of words that should appear next to each other, then generates those patterns based on your search request. It doesn’t actually know what the words mean, only the mathematics behind how they should align. 

“a language model is just a probability distribution over words. Whether it’s a simple n-gram model like my bot or a state-of-the-art 175 billion parameter deep learning model, what it’s programmed to accomplish is the same: record empirical relationships between word frequencies over a historical corpus of text,” (source).

The trouble with this model is that the scans of probability can be off…and because the artificial intelligence doesn’t understand its own output, it can’t check for accuracy. ChatGPT and AI make a lot of mistakes, including old information, false statistics, and even completely fabricated content. Colin Fraser wrote in his article that “Artificial intelligence is a B.S. generator. A person who lies knows they are telling a lie. Compulsive liars take some kind of pride in pulling off a big fat lie. AI is more like the person who just spouts random B.S. and has no clue if it’s right or wrong.“

AI also cannot learn like the human brain can. Sure, they can find more and more information on the web and add it to its little mechanical “brain,” but it can’t learn in the same manner a human can. 

For example, if we see a news report on Facebook and we’re not sure if it’s fake news or not, we’re going to do some research to find out if it’s true or not. AI is kind of like that person on Facebook that either believes what they see or trusts the people in the comments section. Instead of learning, ChatGPT grows. It grows based on content quantity, not quality falling for the “If it’s popular, it must be true” ideology. 

One of the biggest differences between ChatGPT and copywriters is ChatGPT lacks persona life experience.  It can make some predictions of the desired tone and draw from popular sources, but it lacks the empathy, sympathy, and introspective abilities to maintain an transparent, consistent emotional experience.  Most writers appreciate good, unique, and brilliant writing that can be recognized without having to read the byline. Good writers have their own unique flair, whereas ChatGPT has a unique way to shuffle words around in paragraphs.

The last big concern regarding ChatGPT is the fact that it doesn’t list sources. If you remember from high school and college, sources are HUGE. This prevents you from being accused of plagiarism and shows the reader where you got your information. If you ask ChatGPT to write you an essay, it’ll give you a bunch of information, but due to the method it uses to create, it cannot cite the original sources of information. If you’re dealing with ideas, that’s one thing…but when you’re dealing with facts and figures, it’s quite another. Copyright infringement, false statistics, or mixed up facts are just some of the risks. 

Additionally, content created using ChatGPT and other AI tools cannot be claimed as your own intellectual property, making its direct use to make money a dangerous copyright complexity (Say that ten times fast). The exact regulations regarding AI and claiming intellectual property as it relates to business are blurred and will more than likely evolve as the tools use grows in popularity, but it’s important to note that you cannot copyright any content created by AI, image or copy, as your own. 

Absolutely not! AI is a fantastic and exciting tool that can help make your marketing easier! The purpose of this article is not to turn you away from ChatGPT, rather to shed light on understanding what it does, how it works, and how you can make the most of it.

We encourage (and enjoy) using ChatGPT to generating ideas, help summarize long articles, explain complicated topics, write and debug codes, create translations, aid customer service, generate quizzes, help solve problems, come up with catchy Instagram captions, and can even help cook!

AI is a great base and can help your writing become more full-bodied, engaged, and unique! Just be sure to have actual, human copywriters review, correct, and approve to ensure it matches your brand tone, emotionally speaks to the audience, and is accurate.

If you’re a writer or appreciate good writers, you probably know what the advantages are. Sure, you can get quick, decent content from ChatGPT, but human writers will continue to prevail.

When you give a writer an assignment or a prompt, they’ll not only research and gather quotes if needed, they’ll put their perspective on the topic. You get to take a trip into the writer’s mind and find out their feelings on the topic, what they believe, and how they interpret it.

Creativity is probably the biggest asset of human writers. If a writer is not creative, the content is going to lack, well, creativity and entertainment. When you open a book or click on an article, you’re expecting to read something that grabs and keeps your attention. You can spend a lot of hours trying to force ChatGPT to create interesting hooks, but the program will mostly provide based on content that already exists. It’s easier to get a real person to write specific, out-of-the-box hooks that grab attention and defy the norm. 

Sure, writers also string along content, but with that there’s understanding the context, the tone, and the objective of the content.

For example, we have many clients that require content creation from our team. We don’t have the same tone and context for each client. We research the tone that is desired per client, understand what the content is for, and use that information to write the content they need and complete specific tasks.

Humans understand ethics – well, most do. It’s important to take on the responsibility of ethics when it comes to writing, not only for yourself but for the publication or client you’re writing for. ChatGPT can’t be held responsible to acknowledge ethics, so human writers need to regulate what it produces or simply write sensitive material themselves to ensure no errors. 

Whether you take advantage of ChatGPT or not, you still need to hire a writer for your business that takes the time to learn the ins and outs of your business. Make sure you have a trusted team member (or partner)  can create or regulate content that understands the industry, defines you from competitors, is SEO optimized, and can talk back when further discussion is needed.  In other words, there’s nothing like the human mind, even if it needs a little help sometimes. 

What is better? Human writers or AI? In a large scale, human writers will always be necessary. AI will fully replace human writers when pigs fly (which, at this rate may be soon. You know, we have Elon Musk, self driving cars & stuff).

When you’re ready, we’ll be here! Reach out today.

We’ll utilize this ChatGPT for idea generation, help us write code if needed, and for research purposes. For example, if you’re our client and you live in a town in California, we’ll use ChatGPT to help us learn a little more about your area to familiarize ourselves.

Nothing replaces the watchful eye of our creative writers. We are ready to learn, research, and take on any writing assignment that you have, utilizing the latest technology to make our irreplaceable creativity and strategy even better.