In a marketplace that pays by the word, it really shouldn’t surprise anyone that AI content tools are becoming the norm.
In a video recently I mentioned Facebook groups posting word count metrics from Jasper and I mentioned I’d got talking to a freelance writer that day in a coffee shop who was using AI tools 90% of the time.
After playing around with these a lot you do spot certain patterns and I’ve had these exact patterns show up in content from a content agency.
In short?
Pandora’s Box has been opened and it’s going to be tough to put the lid back on the box.
310 responses. 130 had experience with AI tools for content generation. That’s 41.9% and I’d wager that number is only growing.
Yes, a small number are probably just claiming to have experience in hopes of getting a job but my money is wagering that there’s also a number of them who use these tools and don’t want to admit it. A number of the writers I spoke to have extensive practice with them, one had even created training videos for other writers.
Whether or not this is a problem really depends on where you fall on the AI content debate.
My thoughts?
People have been running content through AI-powered content spinners for ages now and this idea that ‘passing Copyscape’ meant it was in any way valuable content never made sense. It doesn’t take much to pass that kind of check.
I think writers who were going to try and pump out a ton of crappy content now have better tools to be able to do it. I think it’s going to be harder to spot unless you’re actively checking the quality of the content that comes back.
I also think it opens the door for better quality content.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (since the alternative is I actually go back to work) when used as a tool to prevent writer’s block and give ideas – these tools are great.
I know I’ve mentioned that I’ve seen AI content threaten the reader before but last week I watched it provide some great financial advice on where the reader should be investing their money. It’s disturbing how sure it is that investing in a horseradish farm (or whatever it actually said) was a guaranteed money maker.
Letting the AI run wild and publish nonsense is a bad idea. Letting a writer you don’t trust run wild and publish nonsense is also a bad idea.
Both are probably going to get you slapped by an algorithm update at one point.
If these tools are guided by a writer who can stop it from giving insane investment advice it can actually help them provide some great quality content in a shorter amount of time.