Two questions arise with the popularity of AI content-generation tools going off the chart:
“What possibilities are we yet to explore?” and “Will AI take away writers’ jobs for good?”
AI is a dual-edged sword. The more you rely on AI for content generation, the harder it gets to create compelling content. But without AI, you’ll be wasting hours when your competitors would’ve gone far ahead.
Though only 15% of startup companies have shrunk their writing teams after AI advancements, many writers fear the ruthless nature of AI replacing humans. Writers in all spheres are opening up about how clients are willing to let go of them for AI.
A recent example is the strike by the Writers Guild of America against using AI to write scripts. The strike had a positive conclusion, with the union fulfilling its demands. But the question remains: How do we make AI a benefit, not a risk?
The best way to come to a conclusion is to analyze the pros and cons of AI-generated content. Knowing when AI can harm you will help you understand that the combination of AI plus human creativity is the way forward.
Let’s dive in!
How is an AI Content Generation Tool Made?
As we delve into the intricacies of AI writing tools, it’s necessary to understand the foundation upon which these tools are built. At the heart of AI-generated content lies Large Language Models (LLMs).
LLMs are, to put it simply, replicas of the human brain. They’re made to analyze and comprehend the intricacies of human language. They’re trained on large and diverse datasets to absorb and comprehend the complex structures of human language.
You can call them the driving force behind AI-generated content that enables the AI tools to analyze, interpret, and replicate the nuances of written expression. The way LLMs work is through pattern recognition and context comprehension.
GPT-3 and GPT-4 models, which have become a common name thanks to ChatGPT, are prime examples of LLMs.
As these tools are trained to replicate human writing, they need to comprehend the nuances of input customization. To put it another way, there’s no AI without humans.
Pros And Cons of AI-Generated Content
Pros of AI-Generated Content
AI is full of usefulness, and I’m in for it. When using AI writing tools, I only look at their benefits for the pre-writing process. The best way to use AI is for:
- Content outlining
- Creating content calendars
- Brainstorming ideas
- Generating definitions
- Writing meta-descriptions
- Brainstorming blog titles
- Summarizing videos into texts
- Capturing key pointers to use in articles
Here’s how AI content helps writers:
1. No writer’s block
Staring at a blank page is any writer’s worst nightmare. AI takes writer’s block out of the equation. With basic outlines, repeatable templates, and content ideas, you can structure your content immediately and get into writing right off the bat.
2. Saves time and money
No writer is new to the countless hours spent in the blog writing process, from conception to publishing. In the pre-AI era, blog writing took around 6 hours on average, with the first 3 hours used only for content research and ideation. AI changes the game by saving around 2+ hours. Isn’t it exciting? Not the forget the many opportunities AI has made open to earn a passive income.
3. Optimized SEO
Let’s admit: Keyword research is one tedious process. Finding the right keywords with proper business value is a continuous process. You can’t go wrong with it. AI is making keyword research and SEO optimization easy and affordable.
You can find relevant and high-ranking keywords, do content gap analysis, find out where your published blogs are lacking, and more with AI tools. The customizable GPTs launched by ChatGPT in November 2023 have made creating your own keyword research tool a piece of cake.
Real-world example:
In this Ahrefs video, Sam Oh has explained how he used ChatGPT to take their blog post from the bottom of the first page to position 1. Here’s every optimization he performed on the published content using ChatGPT:
- Clear headers: Sam gave the existing blog post to ChatGPT and asked it to make the main headers clear, direct, and easy to understand.
- The Ahrefs tool has a report called “Also talk about,” which shows the list of topics the top 10 pages on a certain keyword talk about. But manually scanning every page of the report takes hours. Sam turned to ChatGPT and gave as a prompt:
#1 The blog post he wanted to rank
#2 List of keywords related to the topic
And asked ChatGPT to return the keywords he’s missed in the blog post.
The task that would’ve taken him hours took only a minute.
Do you see how powerful AI can be while still being an assistant?
4. Cost-effective
Only SEO and research tools can cost up to $100 per month. Bring in the writing costs; you can easily surpass $200/month. It’s too big a marketing investment for small businesses.
AI can make a reliable tool for pre-writing steps well under $100 for annual subscriptions. Many tools offer integrations with keyword research tools like Semrush and generate blog outlines within seconds.
Use an AI tool with an expert writer, and you can easily cut half the spending on your blog.
I’ve written a detailed review of 8 AI content writing tools under a $50 monthly subscription. Read the article to find out which tool fits all your needs.
5. Improved efficiency and productivity
It’s the era of omnipresent marketing. But creating compelling content for all platforms is not a smooth ride, not the easiest for human writers.
It can take hours to churn out blog posts and social media content. Even with repurposing, humans can only create so much in a day.
An average AI tool can get your content calendar for an entire month within less than an hour. Depending on your investment, there’s no limit on how much content you can produce daily.
Tips for Using AI Writing Tools Effectively
- Better prompts: The way we’ve built AI writing tools ensures they never become a replacement. These tools can get only as much better as the prompts they get. Give them a poor, unclear prompt, and your result will be all over the place.
- Not using the first draft: If you want to make the best of AI-generated content, never publish the first draft it produces. No matter what tool and in how much capacity you use, run the content through at least a couple of rounds of human editing.
- Multiple rounds of playing with it: Getting better at prompting these tools comes with playing around with them. Give yourself the time to understand how each tool functions and optimize its results with multiple rounds of prompts.
- Run your content through AI detection tools: Though Google doesn’t penalize AI-generated content as long as it follows the platform’s guidelines, it’s better to check your content on AI detection tools. The more probability your content has of being written by humans, the better. Content that sounds human-like resonates better with the audience and has a higher engagement rate. Paid tools like Originality AI and free tools like GPTZero give the most accurate results for detecting AI content.
- Avoiding plagiarism and copyright infringement: Since many AI tools don’t create new content but recreate the existing one, check your final draft for plagiarism. Tools like Quetext give maximum accuracy. You can see every instance of plagiarism, even if it combines just a few words.
Learn more about using ChatGPT for content writing here.
Potential Cons and How to Overcome Them
1. Biases and inaccuracies
You can’t trust AI to be factually correct all the time. AI hallucinates big time. Many AI tools will generate and pass false or outdated information into the articles. Since AI pulls content from the material already available online, it can easily mistake data relevancy.
Solution: The best way is to ask the tool to analyze the article it generated and pinpoint the mistakes, if any. Pass the content through at least one round of fact-checking before finalizing the draft.
2. Plagiarism
Though Google doesn’t penalize AI content, its algorithms are set up to penalize content identical to or directly lifted from other sources but lacking originality. To reduce the chance of being accused of plagiarism, make sure AI is trained to generate original, valuable content while creating content.
3. Overreliance on technology
The concern that overuse of AI can degrade human skills is real. Going all in on AI content and removing human expertise can have a negative impact. Human editing can prevent publishing incorrect, offensive, or inaccurate content. I’ve discussed how making content creation an AI-only job affects brands in the next section.
Solution: It’s crucial to draw a line and balance AI and human expertise. Emphasize the importance of human judgment. Use AI as an enhancement of human capabilities, not a replacement.
4. Redundancy
Almost all AI content generation tools are known for producing repetitive content. You’ll find specific phrases, sentences, and sentence structure repeating throughout the content. ChatGPT is notoriously famous for it.
Search engines vet the content based on its usefulness. Articles ridden with redundancy are prone to be pushed down on the SERPs.
Solution: Avoid using AI as a content writer. Use AI as an idea generator. Never make the AI content your final finished product.
5. Devaluation by Google
With its helpful content update, Google is ensuring the removal of content that doesn’t enhance user experience and enrich the users. Besides, it evaluates content to meet the E-E-A-T guidelines.
AI can generate content poor in experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, devaluating the website’s authority.
Solution: Make experts and real authors work on the content, add the trust factor by providing authentic information and correct citations, cite proper authors, etc.
How has AI Become a Risk? And What’s the Reason?
Using AI to write entire articles is like doing a home workout video without reading the preventive measures—you will hurt yourself.
Recent examples of AI malfunction were of famous publications like Sports Illustrated and CNET. CNET used AI to write its articles only to get them labeled as a “journalist disaster” and “Dumb mistake.” Sports Illustrated is claimed to give bylines to authors who don’t exist for AI-generated content.
You see, the problem isn’t AI but how it’s used. If you let AI become the only writer instead of an aid, it’s guaranteed to make mistakes.
We need to understand that thinking like a human is not being a human. AI or deep learning is about creating and training neural networks to function like a human brain. But, it’s training. That machine doesn’t have a brain of its own. The way the human mind works, its intricacies, the sudden sparks of creativity, or the time needed to shut down to come back with more energy – that’s not shared with any machine. A machine can produce hundreds of articles within minutes. But it will hardly meet the human genius of creating quality content.
AI Alone Is The Risk
Finally, to conclude: Humans genuinely care for the craft. They go out scouting for real-world stories, talk to tens of businesses and experts related to the articles, and then weave it all into an article that gives people the worth of their time.
Machines don’t care.
People mistaking machines for humans is the reason people are losing jobs. Companies need to understand the benefits and drawbacks of AI tools. Only then can they value human expertise.
On the other hand, writers need to upskill themselves. In the coming years, only those professionals who constantly keep upgrading themselves will keep up the pace of the changing technology.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can AI writing tools proofread content?
Yes, AI tools likes Wordtune, Grammarly, ChatGPT, etc. can proofread content.
2. Which industries are best suited for AI‑powered writing?
Industries which need to produce large quality of content benefit hugely from AI-powered writing. Mostly digital marketing, SEO, content marketing can benefit from AI-powered writing.
3. Can I use an AI writing tool directly in my WordPress editor?
Yes, many tools like Scalenut and Frase offer AI-assisted content editing in WordPress dashboard.