Humans vs artificial intelligence: the battle of the best content writer
The robots are here, and they want to…write content?
We can’t fight it – artificial intelligence (AI) is here and it’s here for good. While it’s already proving to be a huge disruptor in the world as we know it, it certainly isn’t perfect and doesn’t make us mere mortals redundant (at least, not yet).
Technology has a powerful ability to supercharge content writing, and right now the attention is on those who can deliver value for money. As a result, businesses like ours need to be familiar and comfortable with this evolving technology at both a conceptual and practical level.
In this blog, we consider the advantages and disadvantages of both AI-generated content and human created content, as well as some of the important legal and ethical considerations for business and website owners.
How does AI work?
AI uses machine learning to enable computers to make predictions or perform a task at high speeds and with a relatively high level of accuracy. It achieves this by drawing upon large amounts of existing data, known as “big data”, as well as text prompts, learning algorithms and patterns to produce an automatically generated result. Big data is accumulated online and stored in an offsite repository for ongoing data storage via cloud computing.
What’s all the fuss about?
Look, AI is good – really good. Plug a question into an AI technology tool, like ChatGPT, and within seconds it will spit out an answer. It’s already infiltrating and transforming everyday life, more than you may even realise. Have you found yourself blown away by Spotify playlist or Netflix movie recommendations? Wondered how photo albums on your phone are eerily able to recognise faces of your friends and family? That’s all due to AI.
Advantages of AI-generated content
As a company that profits from selling human-written web content, we are all too aware what the normality and accessibility of AI could mean for the future of our business. There’s no denying AI-generated content has its advantages over human-created content.
Efficient and productive
Businesses can use AI to quickly and effectively complete tasks that were previously undertaken slowly, manually and laboriously. Without a doubt, the greatest benefit of AI is its ability to create content much faster than humans. There’s no need for hours of research and writing – tools like ChatGPT can produce a 500-word article in less than two minutes. Without the imposition of writer’s block, AI can get the job done faster.
Accessible and affordable
Like many technology solutions, as AI has risen in popularity it has also quickly become accessible and affordable. There is a rapidly growing range of off-the-shelf AI service solutions that have low subscription costs, and even some that are free. For a business with minimal (or no) budget for content writing, they are no longer at a disadvantage thanks to readily-available AI tools.
Disadvantages of AI-generated content
Just because the content is accurate, doesn’t mean it’s objectively good. Not all data is valuable. When it comes to content, you need to think about what you want it to achieve. Things like brand, tone and purpose influence how content is written, and this is where AI-generated content falls short.
Concerns as to quality and originality
While AI can produce huge amounts of content fast, it isn’t always high-quality and certainly can’t be relied upon as being well-researched or factually accurate. By using AI to generate content for your website, you take a huge gamble in repurposing content that others might have already used. For this reason, the uptake in the use of AI tools is expected to create an echo-chamber across the internet. Without original content, there’s very little that will help set your website apart from competitors.
Lack of creativity and emotional intelligence
Unlike their robot counterparts, human writers are able to drawn upon their experiences, emotion and world view to produce content that is creative and nuanced. Your website content needs to reflect your brand, which has its own unique story, tone and audience. For content to have an impact, it needs to evoke a feeling and connection with the reader. It’s this kind of creative content writing that gives human writers a distinct advantage.
Privacy and cyber security issues
Any discussion about the use of data by AI software brings up issues concerning cyber security. A huge portion of big data is sensitive and confidential. While we expect cyber security to operate in the way it was designed (to ensure the data is not used inappropriate or illegally), there is little transparency around cyber security in the context of AI. This raises serious concerns and questions as to the cyber risks in using AI to complete tasks.
Ethical and legal considerations
The ethical and legal implications of using AI to write content are extremely murky. Generally, where a person develops a new idea, product or service, it belongs to that person and is considered their intellectual property (IP). IP rights are protected by things like copyright, trademarks and patents. An unauthorised use of someone’s IP can give rise to legal action by the IP owner. Understanding IP rights and responsibilities is important for everyone, but especially for business owners as creators of new ideas, products and services.
Can a student use ChatGPT to write their assignment, or does this amount to academic plagiarism? Can a business owner use AI to write web copy for their website, or could they potentially be sued for copyright infringement? Does AI have free access to collect and repurpose information on someone’s website, or is this a cyber security or privacy breach? These are questions that do not yet have straightforward answers.
Google has formal guidelines that explicitly prohibit “stitching and combining content”. Due to the way in which AI content is generated, it is more likely to violate those guidelines. This opens up significant legal risks with regard to copyright and plagiarism.
Your web content needs to be original and not infringe on the rights of others. While maximising on AI to write content can save you money in the short-term, it could be extremely costly in the long-term if you end up running into a legal battle over whether content you’ve uploaded to your website and represent as being your own is actually the IP of someone else.
The best of both worlds
With their powers combined, AI and human content may well be the future of content writing. Like with any form of labour, you want to outsource the work to the professionals who will achieve the desired result as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. The foundational information for website content can be quickly and easily generated using AI, before an experienced content writer then adds their creative flair and SEO knowledge.
At MyWork, we’re committed to using the latest technologies to deliver exceptional results for our clients, and so we recognise that a combined AI and human content writing strategy is a new opportunity worth exploring.
Whether you want an expert SEO strategy, original web copy or a combined AI/human approach, we can customise a content writing package that is right for you.
Interested in a website content audit?
With Sarah’s return to MyWork she’s hit the ground running and is keen to talk to all of our clients about how she can help transform the tone and impact of your website copy. Contact us today to get your free website copy audit!