Generative AI - What it does well, and where it sucks eggs

Let’s talk generative AI and originality. Why do some clients love AI writing and some hate it? It really all boils down to a misunderstanding from BOTH sides of the issue.

Clients that love it see it as a quick, easy, and cheap solution.

Clients that hate it think of it as paying for a cheap knockoff full of awkward phrasing and point to the rampant errors.

So who’s right and who’s wrong? Both are right and wrong.

AI isn’t all bad… but it’s often pretty stinky if you don’t take care with how you use it.

Why does generative AI often fail?

Think of AI like showing a toddler a manuscript of the Magna Carta, then giving them a pen and expecting beautiful penmanship. AI can not produce a fully finished and polished product without human intervention.

• Generative AI doesn’t actually understand language, it understands the equivalent of a complex series of if/then statements that mimic human language without true comprehension of meanings.
• Just like when a teacher calls on a child in class who wasn’t paying attention, AI may make up an answer and try to pass it off as truth.
• Many generative AI programs were fed massive amounts of data without any quality control checks on that data.
• Because generative AI is mimicking what it has seen without real understanding, the end result is often a sort of word collage of good and bad quality.

AI only knows what it has been told, so if it’s been fed a lot of copyrighted articles, it can easily spit out heavily plagiarized results.

What does generative AI do well?

Shorter is better when it comes to generative AI. The fewer variables, the fewer chances it has to foul up. Where generative AI really shines is in comparatively short, repetitive tasks where the resulting verbiage can easily be fine-tuned and fact-checked without a significant time investment.

For example, AI is great at giving you starting text for:

• Meta title and Meta descriptions
• Suggesting related keywords
• Short (under 4 sentences) summaries of articles
• Product descriptions
• Generating headlines and titles
• Suggesting article topic ideas based on popular searches

How does generative AI fit into the future of content marketing?

Generative AI is a tool that needs to be used by skilled operators to make a positive contribution to content marketing.

New technology always comes with an adjustment period. People play around with it and push it well beyond its limits. Generative AI is in this adjustment period. The problem lies in when people try to substitute generative AI for human-led work. Once the dust settles and more organizations understand generative AI is a tool to be guided by skilled human writers, editors, and marketers, its power to improve productivity will begin to shine.

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