There’s no question about it: the numerous applications of language models are impressive. ChatGPT, OpenAI‘s artificial intelligence-based chat bot, has been gaining buzz since its launch. However, the reactions to it have not been solely positive. Concerns have been raised in some industries in particular around the powers of ChatGPT.
Quite rightly, many SEOs and Content Marketers are still unsure of the impact that AI-writing platforms will have on their work in the future. But are these fears justified? We’ve taken a look at what AI-writing platforms actually mean for the future of content marketing to answer some of the questions around it.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a dialogue-based chat bot system created in the OpenAI workshop and is based on the AI language model GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer). In order for GPT to learn the structures of human speech and language, it is fed a large amount of data, enabling it to generate a large number of texts, output program code or answers to various questions.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results of the model based on the deep learning technology have not only stirred up fears among members of the search engine industry but also beyond it. Along with the programmers, authors and journalists who are concerned for their jobs, educational institutions are fearful of students and academics misusing AI tools for written work and assignments.
The use of AI writing platforms in content marketing
The potential power of ChatGPT and GPT-3 in content marketing is massive. We already know that AI systems can access and efficiently process extensive amounts of data to quickly deliver accurate results. AI writing platforms are also capable of creating both Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, Alt Tags, glossaries, wikis, or FAQs – the list goes on. It’s clear that AI is capable of relieving its human colleagues of some repetitive work.
It is also significant that the generation of Schema.org markups proves how AI tools can facilitate the work of SEOs and content marketers. When you ask AI to provide the structured data, creating rich snippets becomes an easy task. In addition, content marketers can use the language model to check grammar, readability and spelling of created content, shortening time-consuming feedback loops easily.
AI is only as good as the person using it
Use cases like these make it clear that AI is capable of taking on content marketers’ work. However, these are beginner-level activities.
AI writing platforms create content from what already exists – so everything the tool produces has already been published once in a similar form. This means that AI-generated texts often lack creativity and personality.
An AI can offer efficiency but not originality
Machines do not have the natural and necessary feeling for the tonality really makes content ring true and successfully perform with the target group. Carsten Bolk, Content Marketing Lecturer at the School of Media in Leipzig, says: “Only unusual content creation, one that has been previously unseen in its style, content or format, will get people’s attention in a target group’s increasingly narrow window of perception.” ChatGPT is not capable of doing that.
What are the limits of AI?
AI writing platforms quickly reach their limits because they only learn from the data they are provided and do not bring creativity or a human perspective. ChatGPT and GPT-3 operate without real understanding of the knowledge they have and without the ability to self-correct or even recognise innovative and interesting ideas and deeper connections. Essentially, they lack the very things that make a good content creator.
Moreover, AI systems are not capable of making moral decisions or applying ethical standards. In some cases, AI systems can thus unintentionally reproduce prejudice and discrimination in their output. Furthermore, there are quite a few specialised niches where an AI writing platform may not be able to compete – such as the creation of entertaining content, which requires a particularly high degree of originality and creativity.
AI language models as assistants and inspiration sources
ChatGPT represents a major advance in the field of artificial intelligence – and one that should be exploited. If we can recognise the potential here, a wide range of opportunities will open up in both our day-to-day and working lives. While some data scientists already see ChatGPT as a way to code even more efficiently, the AI tool can also be put to good use in teaching. For example, students can have ChatGPT create solutions for them by feeding the tool with case studies. From there, the students can critically engage with the AI-generated solution, identify weaknesses in the reasoning, and develop a better solution based on that. What ChatGPT will take away from us is not our professions, but our previous way of working.
Language models won’t be able to fully replace the work of content marketers. However, we can safely assume that they will decrease the content marketer’s workload by taking on simple writing tasks such as the creation of meta data or headlines. This is where ChatGPT can begin to work, providing creative inspiration and working as a writing assistant by creating texts that can inspire further creative work.
As a result, AI could well make industries more efficient without having too much of an impact on overall employment. However, for this to work, there needs to be a shift in thinking. Perhaps it’s time to look at things from a differnet perspective – and to work with rather than against ChatGPT, GPT-3 and others.
Fearing taking risks blinds us to opportunities
An AI writing platform can be a valuable addition for content creators who want to reduce their workload and work more efficiently. As the tools take over simple tasks in the future, content creators can use the time saved to personalise digital strategies or perfect content: “In many ways, AI will help people make better use of their expertise,” predicts MIT professor David Autor, one of the world’s leading experts on employment and technological change.
Artificial intelligence is on the rise, and resisting innovative developments like this is not practical. AI writing platforms should not be seen as a threat, but rather as an enrichment for our day-to-day work. In content marketing in particular, we need future-oriented and solution-oriented perspectives on our work. Ultimately it is innovation and quality that determine long-term success or failure in the marketing industry and yet, in the course of the discussion surrounding AI tools such as ChatGPT and GPT-3, a classic thinking error has occured that has no positive effect on either the mood or the economy: we just see the risks and underestimate the opportunities.
Basically, there’s no need to panic. ChatGPT, GPT-3 and others like them are unlikely to trigger a mass loss of jobs in content marketing. We need to think carefully about these tools and their place in our future.
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