AI CONTENT TOOLS: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

As AI tools like ChatGPT and YouWrite become more prevalent, it is becoming increasingly important to use knowledgeable writers for content and marketing purposes. Because, while these tools have the potential to improve productivity, they also make it much more likely for inaccuracies to slip through unnoticed.

Why? Simply put, AI is very convincing! Indeed, over the past few weeks, I’ve been playing around with several artificial intelligence-based tools, and I’ve been extremely impressed… with certain capabilities.

On the surface, they can instantly churn out very competent, even compelling, written content about pretty much any subject under the Sun. So, you could be forgiven for thinking content writing has just got much easier, and businesses can save a pile of cash, right?

Well, hold your horses. You see, AI tools are something of a honey trap. Sure, the content looks legit at first. But, does the AI actually know what it’s talking about? Are the details correct and have facts and subtleties fallen victim to smooth-talking hot air?

Convincing rubbish

A case in point. I asked one such tool to write a piece about my hometown - a modest place in the British Midlands. Within seconds I had a highly convincing piece referring to its illustrious history and notable residents. It read very well and would have put many a blog post to shame. But there was one big problem - it was absolutely laced with factual errors.

You see, the AI tool had mixed up several geographically distinct towns with the same name, and thrown in bits of history from all of them. Furthermore, by placing the informational elements in a certain way, it created a completely impossible timeline, even for my new imaginary hybrid hometown! Now, it could be argued that this train crash article was my own fault for not being precise enough when writing the specification. And, indeed, that is likely correct - but it proves my point.

And, that point is that precisely because AI tools now sound so convincing, it is actually more important than ever to ensure that human content creators thoroughly understand the subject matter they are dealing with. Any content creator harnessing the power of AI tools needs to be able to confidently and quickly spot any errors.

AI makes human expertise more important than ever

Really, I can’t stress this enough. Think about how this unfolds in the real world. Up until now, factually inaccurate content was usually also poorly written. Of course, there have been exceptions, but for a multitude of factors that I won’t go into here (that would require its own article), inaccuracy and bad writing have usually gone hand-in-hand. However, with those easy-to-spot red flags removed, bad content is going to be much harder to spot.

This issue is likely to manifest itself most with those businesses who are currently using borderline writers to generate mediocre content - often in areas outside of the individual’s expertise (cough cough, iGaming affiliates). These non-expert writers, often freelance, are necessarily under immense pressure to churn out large quantities of content at very low rates. Given this, it is understandable that they might be the most susceptible to the charms of AI.

Of course, if you’re sole goal is churning out vast quantities of spam content, you’re not going to care. But, if you’re running a legitimate business, you very much should care. This is especially true in two areas dear to my heart; iGaming and crypto. Both require highly accurate content that must often meet stringent compliance criteria - and businesses in both sectors can inflict enormous damage by publishing bad content.

All things considered, AI tools are going to transform content creation, and there’s no point fighting them. Quite the opposite in fact. They have the potential to vastly increase productivity and open new realms of creativity. So, if you give a knowledgeable writer access to AI tools, you can probably expect efficiency to improve. But, if you put AI in the hands of copywriters and content creators who are winging it invariably going to end up creating a mess.

I’ll sign off with the words of Spider-Man’s uncle Ben - “With great power comes great responsibility."