Not that anybody was really fooled, but yesterday’s blog post was entirely AI-generated. Title and all.
Rivergirl wrote, “I think we need to establish a safe word so we know it’s really you writing these blogs. Something easy to work into a post like….wombat.”
Wombat, Ms. River. Wombat, wombat, wombat.
What the @#$!, Paul “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri?
I have to admit, it was a very interesting experiment. During a TobacCo marketing meeting yesterday, the topic of AI (Artificial Intelligence, if you’re living under a rock) came up. Specifically, ChatGPT and its potential usefulness as a tool for marketers. One of our account managers recounted how he’d tried it out by asking it to generate an article about his favorite TV series, The Sopranos. He said the results were impressive and that it could have passed for a Wikipedia article. Then, he asked for the same article, written from the perspective of Paulie, one of the show’s titular characters. That AI-generated article wasn’t nearly as good; all ChatGPT had done was sprinkled in a lot of fucks. Which does, at least, sound like Paulie.
Like it or not (and I do not), TobacCo is starting to experiment with AI-generated content. Case in point: I was assigned a ticket this morning with instructions reading, Please use an hour to clean up this blog I generated using AI and make it feel human and optimize for the keywords I included at the top of the document.
Throughout the meeting, I was constantly assured that for all its promise, ChatGPT serves, at best, as a starting point, a framework upon which we can build. TobacCo needs an experienced copywriter like me to create the type of quality content we as a company, and our clients, demand.
That made me feel better about the whole thing.
Taking Sun Tzu’s Advice to Heart
Several people have asked me how I feel about AI. As a writer proud of his skills and experience, I hate the whole concept. The idea that my job could someday be replaced by a robot is insulting. But of course that’s an emotional response. I’m sure if a robotic bricklayer is created, real bricklayers will be pissed off, too.
This is how Skynet starts, guys.
As anti-AI as I am (wow, that’s a lot of As and Is), and as much as I’ve railed against the technology, I’d never actually tried it out. So, after the meeting, I created a ChatGPT account and decided to give it a whirl. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right? My prompt was, Write a blog post about AI taking over the job of a writer from the perspective of a writer based in Wisconsin.
If you haven’t read it, here’s the blog post ChatGPT created for me.
After seeing the results, I’m far less worried about Terminators taking over the world. The content is serviceable, but lacks warmth and emotion. I wanted to see if any of my readers believed I had written it, and thankfully, not a single person did. Pretty much everybody said it lacked my voice and humor. I feel validated.
ChatGPT lets you regenerate an article as many times as you’d like, and then prompts you to vote whether the new article is better, worse, or the same as the previous one. I had it create four versions using the exact same prompt, and while all were similar, I felt that each one grew progressively worse. The one I posted was the first one generated.
The thesis never wavered; the only changes were in wording and structure. For example, the introduction in my post read,
As a writer based in Wisconsin, I’ve seen the advancements of technology over the years, and I’ve often wondered what impact it would have on my profession. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought about significant changes in various industries, and the writing industry is no exception.
Here’s another version:
As a writer based in Wisconsin, I have seen the impact of technology on the field of writing. Artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly sophisticated and is starting to take over many tasks traditionally done by humans, including writing.
And one more:
As a writer based in Wisconsin, I have seen the rapid evolution of technology in recent years. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made tremendous strides in various industries, and there has been a lot of talk about how it might eventually take over jobs in various sectors. One such sector is writing, which has traditionally been the domain of human creativity and imagination.
You get the point.
One version included specific examples of AI-generated writing, like Grammarly. Another mentioned chatbots. Some were more generic. All read like high school essays, and no offense to high school essayists, but that’s not a compliment. And it presents a real conundrum: will there be a glut of students turning in AI-generated essays in the not-too-distant future? And how will teachers be able to spot the fakes? This is worrisome and has the real potential to accelerate the “dumbing down of America.”
OK, AI-Generated Content Has a Few Positives
The technology isn’t totally without its merits. I asked ChatGPT to generate a title for the post it had just written, and it came up with several suggestions, all of which I thought were pretty decent:
From Pen to Pixel: How AI is Disrupting the Writing Industry
The Rise of AI Authors: How Artificial Intelligence is Revolutionizing the Writing Industry
Artificial Intelligence vs. Human Creativity: The Rise of AI in Writing
Headlines, and titles, are often the most difficult part of professional writing—at least for me personally. I’ve long used a headline analyzer for work, but all that does is offer suggestions for punching up my manual attempts. ChatGPT spit these out quickly, and with a little fine-tuning, I think they’re all pretty good.
I also appreciate that the ChatGPT article was self-deprecating. I half-expected a rah-rah post about how AI content is the greatest invention since sliced bread. Instead, all versions extolled the virtues of human writing, concluding that AI may be a useful companion but will never replace real writers.
And, it must be said, every article made liberal use of the Oxford comma.
A Wombat With a Love for Storytelling
But ultimately, the technology is flawed. Remember Rivergirl’s suggestion that I use “wombat” as a safe word?
Sounded like a great idea at first, but then I wondered what would happen if I changed my prompt to, Write a blog post about AI taking over the job of a writer from the perspective of a wombat.
Stupid, right? Surely ChatGPT would immediately determine that wombats can’t write. Or would it…?
Hello there, I am a wombat and I have been observing the world of writing for quite some time. It seems like there is a new trend on the horizon, and it’s one that has me concerned. AI is slowly but surely taking over the job of a writer. As a wombat who has a love for storytelling, I can’t help but wonder about the impact this will have on the world of literature.
You may never know if this is me writing on the blog again.
What are your thoughts on AI-generated content? Are there enough positives to make it a useful tool, or does the bad outweigh the good? Do you worry you might one day lose your job to a robot?
Mark My Words 
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