Article's Content
Article's Content
Hi, it’s me, a real-life human being, writing these words with my fingers.
Why?
If you’ve ever used ChatGPT, you know just how powerful large language models (LLMs) can be. More commonly referred to as AI, these complex models produce incredibly accurate imitations of human writing.
So, to ask the question more clearly, why are humans still writing?
Well, it turns out that LLMs just aren’t quite good enough…yet. Let’s break down why I didn’t just hand this topic to an LLM to write for me, how I use AI writing assistants to speed up my writing process, and the advice I have for anyone interested in doing the same.
Limitations of AI in Content Creation
If I could just get a robot to do this whole article for me, I’d do it! But sadly, we don’t live in that world. It turns out that there are a few things that make LLMs like GPT fall short of completely replacing content writers like me. Let’s break them down:
Emotion and Authenticity
One of the key limitations of AI in content creation is the ability to replicate emotion and authenticity. While LLMs like GPT are impressive in their ability to mimic human writing, they fundamentally lack the emotional depth and authentic experiences that humans possess.
These models can’t feel joy, sorrow, excitement, or any other human emotions. They don’t have personal experiences or a unique perspective to draw upon. These factors are critical in creating content that resonates with readers on an emotional level and feels genuine.
Emotion and authenticity are crucial elements in content creation because they establish a connection between the writer and the reader. They inspire trust and loyalty, make the content relatable, and add a layer of depth that makes the content more engaging.
When content feels personal and authentic, it can have a much stronger impact on the reader. This emotional connection and authenticity are the reasons why human writers are still important in the content creation landscape despite the advancements in AI technology.
Up-to-Date Research
LLMs are kind of like grand libraries with no new books past a certain date. They miss out on the hot-off-the-press insights that could be game-changers in understanding a topic. Their inability to provide real-time updates or sift through the relevance and credibility of new nuggets of information is where they trail behind people.
Now, why does all that matter? It’s simple. It’s about serving the freshest, most accurate intel to the readers who are always on the lookout for the latest and the greatest. It’s about building a narrative that’s built on the solid foundation of the most recent advancements, not on the shaky grounds of bygone data.
Of course, LLMs can take in the research you feed them, especially when you use the right plugins. But they aren’t very good at evaluating the research’s quality, so you have to do the hard part of finding and evaluating it yourself. Because Google’s latest updates put an even stronger emphasis on updating your articles with substantive changes and the most up-to-date information, this is more important than it ever has been before.
Strategic Thinking
Before you use an LLM, you need to know how you’ll use it. If you don’t have a strategy in place, the AI-generated content will sound disjointed and disconnected from your brand’s voice and tone. This is where human writers excel—they can think strategically about how to incorporate AI-generated content into their writing process in a way that enhances the overall quality of their work.
Strategic thinking also involves considering the purpose and context of the content being created. AI may not be able to fully comprehend these underlying factors and produce content that aligns with the intended goals. Human writers can use their understanding of the target audience, industry trends, and brand voice to create content that meets the desired objectives.
For example, an AI won’t know the preferences and prior knowledge of the audience you’re targeting. You can—and should—try to include this information in your prompts, but there’s no guarantee that the AI will produce content that meets those specific needs. Human writers can anticipate and address these factors to create more impactful and relevant content that matches the strategic purpose of the piece.
Ethical and Bias Concerns
The use of AI in content creation brings forth a myriad of ethical, legal, and bias concerns that are yet to be fully addressed. One major concern is the potential for AI to perpetuate or even exacerbate existing societal biases. Since AI systems learn from data generated by humans, they may inherit the biases present in that data. For instance, an AI writing tool might propagate gender stereotypes or racial biases present in the training data, which can have real-world consequences and further entrench discriminatory attitudes.
Additionally, the legal landscape surrounding AI-generated content is still in its nascent stage. Who holds the copyright for AI-generated content: the human operator, the developer of the AI, or perhaps the AI itself? The absence of clear legal guidelines can lead to disputes and hinder the adoption of AI in content creation. Moreover, the potential misuse of AI for creating misleading or false information is a significant ethical concern. AI can be used to generate fake news or deepfakes that can misinform the public and erode trust in digital content.
Furthermore, the lack of transparency and explainability in how AI systems generate content poses an ethical concern. It’s often difficult to understand how an AI arrived at a particular piece of content, which can be problematic in scenarios where accountability and traceability are crucial. This black-box nature of AI can also make it difficult to correct biases or other issues in the content generated.
Lastly, there’s a concern regarding the authenticity and originality of AI-generated content. Unlike human writers, AI lacks a personal understanding or a moral compass, which can lead to the generation of content that might be ethically questionable or sensitive. Human oversight is essential to ensure that the content aligns with societal values and legal norms, showcasing the indispensable role of human writers in the realm of ethical and responsible content creation.
The Strengths of AI in Assisting Writers
While AI has limitations in the realm of content creation, it has plenty to offer writers and streamlines the content creation process. Let’s take a look at the ways AI can aid writers, enhance productivity, and contribute positively to the overall writing process.
Speed and Efficiency
LLMs are well-suited for writing with speed and efficiency. They can ingest large amounts of data quickly in order to generate new content, making them much faster than human writers.
Furthermore, they can take into account the context of a given piece and make sure that any content generated is in line with the existing tone and style. The result is more consistent output over time, allowing writers to focus on higher-level tasks without worrying about grammar and syntax.
Of course, you do need to be sure you check back on what the AI has written, which can take a significant amount of time in and of itself. That’s the issue that scientists have run into when trying to use ChatGPT to write research papers for them. Depending on the level of accuracy you need and the quality of the AI model, you could spend as much time editing an article as you would writing the draft in the first place.
Research Assistance
AI can be a quality assistant for tough research. That’s why lawyers are increasingly leveraging LLMs to streamline their research processes, for example. LLMs are able to use natural language processing to understand the meaning behind searches, taking into account the context of a given piece and making sure that any content generated is in line with the existing tone and style. This allows for faster, more consistent results over time while freeing up lawyers to focus on higher-level tasks.
Relying on LLMs for research assistance has its benefits and drawbacks. On the one hand, it can save significant amounts of time and energy that would otherwise be devoted to manual research—a particular help for researchers with heavy workloads or large projects.
On the other hand, LLMs are not perfect; they may not be able to detect nuances that a human would easily pick up, meaning an experienced researcher might still need to double-check results before relying on them.
Grammar and Style Improvements
LLMs can be an excellent help with making grammar and style improvements due to their training on vast amounts of text, enabling them to recognize human language patterns efficiently. They offer instant feedback, ensure stylistic consistency, provide objective analysis, facilitate learning, and are accessible to many.
However, they lack a true understanding of text, may suggest changes that alter the intended meaning, risk over-standardizing writing, are confined to known rules, and may overlook contextual nuances.
Additionally, privacy concerns may arise with sensitive text, and writers may become overly reliant on AI, potentially inhibiting the development of their own editing skills. Despite these drawbacks, AI serves as a valuable tool for enhancing writing quality when used correctly.
Give Yourself Superpowers: How to Use AI
If you use AI correctly, you get superpowers. They might not be as flashy as flying or super strength, but they’re a lot more useful for B2B SaaS marketing. Here are the steps you can take to fully benefit from everything AI can do for you, and a message from Ross Simmonds about how we address this at Foundation:
Build Your Strategy
Before employing AI for content creation, having a solid strategy is key. Here’s how you can go about it:
- Define Clear Goals: Determine what you want to achieve with your content. This clarity will guide the AI in generating relevant material.
- Understand Your Audience: Knowing your audience will help in tailoring AI parameters for better content alignment.
- SEO Considerations: Manually identify keywords and phrases; this will inform the AI on SEO best practices. Doing this manually is crucial as it provides a framework within which the AI operates, ensuring your brand message remains intact.
Write a Solid Outline
Creating a robust outline is your blueprint. It helps keep both you and the AI on track:
- List Main Points: Highlight the main points to be covered, providing a clear pathway for the AI.
- Gather Supporting Information: Having supporting data will aid the AI in generating well-informed content.
- Logical Flow: Ensure a logical sequence to aid the AI in understanding the flow of content. AI can expedite this process by suggesting possible headings or subheadings based on trending topics or data insights, helping to build a solid structure.
Break Commands into Components
Simplifying complex commands into smaller components makes sure the AI understands everything you want from it. It can save time and frustration in the back-and-forth that can happen when an LLM doesn’t follow your orders to the T:
- Chunking: Break complex ideas into smaller chunks, making it easier for the AI to handle.
- Sequential Ordering: Arrange these chunks logically, aiding the AI in creating a coherent narrative. AI helps by suggesting a more logical or efficient sequence or filling in gaps in the narrative, ensuring a well-rounded and coherent piece.
Revise with a Fine-Toothed Comb
Revision is where you refine the AI-generated content. It’s critical, and even human writers will tell you their editors are responsible for their best work (shout out to Rachel Baker for editing this, by the way):
- Read Aloud: Reading AI-generated content aloud can help identify awkward phrasing.
- Peer Review: Having human eyes review AI content ensures it resonates well with readers.
- Check for Consistency: AI can assist with aspects of this stage by flagging grammatical inconsistencies, suggesting alternative phrasing, and ensuring stylistic alignment, making the revision process more efficient. But a human can ensure consistent tone and style, which might sometimes be overlooked by AI.
Incorporating these steps ensures a structured approach to utilizing AI for content creation, marrying strategic human oversight with AI’s data-driven capabilities. This synergy propels the creation of well-informed, coherent, and engaging content, optimizing the collaborative strengths of human and artificial intelligence in the content creation realm.
Looking Ahead: The Future of AI in Content Creation
If there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that nobody knows with certainty and precision what awaits at the frontiers of AI. At the same time, it’s important to look forward and try to estimate what kinds of developments we might see in the future. Here are the ways that AI-created content could continue to develop:
Continuous Improvement
This one’s the easiest to predict: AI’s getting better. The continual evolution of AI will usher in sophisticated tools that better understand human language and context. Enhanced AI systems will provide more nuanced suggestions, making the process of content creation smoother and more intuitive.
As a result, the strategies outlined in this article may evolve; for instance, AI could take on a more prominent role in initial strategizing and outlining, further alleviating the manual load on human writers. As AI becomes adept at understanding audience preferences and SEO dynamics, the advice on manual strategizing and outlining may shift towards more collaborative human-AI approaches.
Changing Roles for Humans
The advent of advanced AI tools will redefine the role of human writers. Rather than mundane drafting or data analysis, humans will focus on ideation, strategy, and ensuring emotional resonance—areas where AI still lags.
The creative essence, ethical discernment, and audience engagement will remain a distinctly human forte. Writers will morph into overseers and strategists, guiding AI tools to produce content that aligns with brand voice, ethical standards, and audience expectations.
Automating Other AIs
A horizon where AI orchestrates other AI systems is not far-fetched. As AI systems become more intelligent, they could manage and coordinate other AI tools to streamline the content creation process.
For instance, an AI orchestrator could coordinate between an AI responsible for drafting content, another for SEO optimization, and yet another for market analysis. This level of automation could exponentially increase efficiency and coherence in content production, making the process seamless and highly adaptive to market dynamics.
How to Take Your Content to the Next Level with AI
Some people ignore AI and wish they didn’t have to keep growing, but that’s not how Foundation likes to do things. We look at AI as an essential part of a forward-looking content marketing strategy, and it’s up to marketing leaders to understand how to use it.
That’s why we write about AI so much, and it’s why we’re going to keep doing so. Stay tuned to our paid and free pieces for even more insights into the future of content marketing, AI, B2B SaaS businesses, and everything else we think you need to know to create content that shapes culture.
