On December 1, 2022, Sam Altman, co-founder and chief executive officer of OpenAI Inc., announced on Twitter that ChatGPT had gone live. Five days later, the platform has garnered a jaw-dropping 1 million subscribers.
ChatGPT is a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI. It is trained to produce human-like text in response to a prompt. The platform is built on the GPT-3 architecture and has become a popular AI content creation tool.
Yet ChatGPT isn’t the first of its kind. In recent years, we’ve seen the rapid rise of AI writing software in digital marketing. Leading AI content generators such as Rytr, Chibi AI and Jasper AI (previously called Jarvis) are used by brands to automate blogging, copywriting and even topic ideation. With AI writing software, businesses can mass-produce content in just a few seconds.
How Does Google Treat AI Generated Content?
In August 2022, Google announced its latest Helpful Content Update, which focuses on delivering more relevant information to users. The update aims to reward websites that produce quality, people-first content.
Does this mean all AI generated content will be automatically penalized? Not exactly.
Google isn’t saying AI content is bad. The real issue is less about who made the content than to whom the content was made for. According to Google’s Public Liaison for Search, Danny Sullivan, the Helpful Content Update targets content written primarily for search engines rather than humans, whether it’s done by a person or AI writing software.
Google is not against AI content creation, provided the output is thoroughly reviewed, fact-checked and offers a better user experience. In contrast, unoriginal and poorly written content that fails to satisfy readers can drag down an entire website’s rankings.
If you plan to incorporate AI in content marketing, ensure the result is readable, engaging and people-first.
“It’s unlikely some AI content is going to feel written by people without some degree of human review,” Sullivan said.
Advantages and Limitations of AI in Content Marketing
Advantages
Faster Turnaround Time
One of the main benefits of leveraging AI blog writing is that it expedites the process. AI Content generators like Jasper and ChatGPT-3 can research and analyze data faster than humans. A 500-word article typically takes a human writer 1.5 to two hours to complete, while Jarvis AI copywriter can do this in a few minutes.
Additionally, AI tools simplify bulk content creation, such as product descriptions, social media posts and location-specific pages. AI in content marketing frees up your time so you can focus on more demanding tasks.
Unlimited Content Ideas
Regularly coming up with fresh ideas is a common hurdle for human writers. AI content generators help scale your topic ideation efforts, allowing you to overcome writer’s block and prevent burnout. Chat with GPT-3, and it will generate a list of ideas and subtopics you can use.
Cost-Effectiveness
AI content creation can be an affordable alternative for businesses with a tight budget. For instance, the premium Jasper AI monthly pricing plan covering 50,000 words per month starts at $49. On the other hand, the cost of professional search engine optimization or SEO content writing services can vary per project. You’ll also have to factor in the writer’s technical expertise, the length of each piece and the number of articles.
Limitations
Lacks Emotional Intelligence To Drive Meaningful Engagement
Since they don’t have memories or feelings, ChatGPT-3 and Jarvis AI copywriter cannot connect with humans on an emotional level. They lack the empathy, creativity and storytelling capabilities necessary to craft quality content that move readers and influence decisions.
Unlike humans, AI content generators can’t write with humor, sarcasm, satire and other forms of emotional expression. They follow a formulaic, repetitive template, often disregarding the nuances of culture and local languages. As a result, content quality suffers.
Inability To Create Original Insights
Modern consumers expect personalized messaging and experiences. Content that seems generic or robotic can easily put off potential customers.
At the end of the day, Chat-GPT3 and Jasper AI still heavily rely on data analysis and machine learning to write content. They can’t go beyond the knowledge fed into their system.
While you can effortlessly talk to GPT 3 about various topics, it simply reorganizes words and sentences of what others have previously published. In short, it’s incapable of writing anything truly original. So while AI generated content may pass a plagiarism check, it can’t form unique insights, data or conclusions.
Cannot Reason nor Verify Factual Accuracy
AI writing tools are only as good as the data they’re fed. When you chat with GPT-3, they comb through billions of online resources to deliver a condensed response, often featuring the most widely accepted facts. They cannot reason nor form valuable opinions.
Even the most advanced systems, like Jarvis AI copywriter and ChatGPT-3, struggle with divisive topics such as politics, religion, gun laws and abortion laws. They aren’t capable of critical thinking or understanding cultural sensitivity. As such, using AI writing tools for controversial or rapidly changing topics can result in inaccurate, outdated or overly simplistic output.
Problematic Algorithmic Bias
When you talk to GPT 3, it leverages machine and deep learning methods to deliver human-like text. Essentially, it’s trained to “write” like humans by reading information written by humans. In the process, it replicates humanity’s best and worst qualities, including the tendency to stereotype, marginalize and sexualize certain groups of people. Without the ability to discern, GPT 3 can’t determine the difference between harmful and prejudiced content and one that’s not.
Without any human oversight, you risk publishing offensive or dismissive material that tarnishes your brand and, more dangerously, sparks stigma, discrimination and misinformation.
Human Intervention Is Key
AI blog writing has come a long way, but it’s still far from being equivalent to human intelligence.
While AI tools may be far superior in their ability to scour billions of resources or compile information at the speed of light, they can never replace human empathy and intelligence. They cannot replicate the critical thinking and cultural sensitivity only human writers can provide.
One of their greatest deficiencies is their lack of training in SEO content best practices. SEO expertise and creativity will always be essential in creating content that reflects a unique brand voice, resonates with targeted audiences and influences buying decisions. A human SEO content strategist can understand nuance and context, offer unique perspectives and think outside the box.
While innovative and convenient, AI blog writing is far from perfect. AI tools still commit errors, from minor typos and poor sentence structures to more serious issues, such as outdated facts and biased conclusions. At the very least, a human editor or proofreader must check content quality, verify data and ensure the text is readable.
AI Isn’t Here To Replace Writers but To Assist Them
Alone, AI-generated content cannot be trusted unless a human writer meticulously checks every line and fact, which arguably takes more time and effort than writing quality content from scratch.
But despite all its flaws, ignoring AI content generators completely is unwise. An SEO content strategist leveraging AI as an idea-bouncing tool can work faster and more efficiently. AI can provide outlines and briefs to help writers structure and guide their content. Human writers can also talk to GPT 3 and build arguments or topic clusters from its responses.
Content that simply paraphrases what chatbots say is ineffective and rarely gains quality traffic. You need fresh, informative and well-researched articles that demonstrate your expertise and unique brand voice to attract your ideal readers and rank higher on search engine results pages.
Publish people-first content that ranks and converts with Thrive’s SEO content writing services. Our team is highly trained in SEO content best practices, specializing in keyword research, link building and content writing. With our content and web design services, your website will effortlessly adapt to Google’s Helpful Content update.
Craft content that conveys your brand voice and establishes you as a thought leader in your industry. Contact us now for a free proposal.