Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few weeks, you’ve heard of ChatGPT. It’s everywhere. Even before ChatGPT, AI-driven content creation has been a big topic with promises of driving SEO results. While AI has its uses, from a marketing standpoint, my concern is how AI-powered content may result in what is for all intents and purposes false advertising and, in the end, hurt customers.
I see ads daily for various types of AI-driven content-creation. They claim to write quality content in seconds. The problem is that this content isn’t coming from me. It’s from a machine. It takes a few inputs and creates a story based on information from the internet. It’s not based on my experience, thoughts, or expertise. You may want to point out that PR agencies ghost write all the time. I’m sure few CEOs actually pen what they post. Those PR agencies write based on interviews with that CEO. They are intimately familiar with that person’s experience, thoughts, and expertise, so the content that’s created is authentic.
This is where the ethics of using AI-written content comes into play. Posting such content as your own is unethical at best. A potential client may pick a company based in part on thought leadership articles, impressed by the apparent experience of its leadership. It won’t be until later that the client finds out that the results don’t match their expectations. Some may be tempted to take AI-written content and reword it, but we all remember learning about plagiarism in school, right? Rewording doesn’t make it your own. At the very least, from an SEO perspective, Google also acknowledges that AI-generated content is against guidelines and can take action against such content. AI is already being used to sniff out AI, and don’t be surprised if Google widely implements something similar.
Of course, tools like ChatGPT have their benefits. Writer’s block is real. The best of us need some inspiration, especially when faced with the requirement for a regular content cadence. AI can help provide ideas, figure out how to word that one tricky sentence. Who knows what else we’ll be able to use AI for in the future. Writing my college papers, Wikipedia was a huge help because looking up the sources listed in an entry was faster than slogging through the school library. AI may be able to help us find sources we are looking for faster than ever before and help create even better unique and informed content.
We’re living in an exciting time. Technology is allowing us to create content like never before. What used to require a film crew is now done by someone with an iPhone. AI will have a profound impact on content creation and marketing as a whole. In the end, a bunch of machine-written articles won’t add any value, especially not to clients. The challenge will be how individuals rise to the occasion and ethically leverage these new tools.
