Over the past few months there has been lots of chatter about a new piece of technology. Enter: ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) – an artificial intelligence text generator developed by OpenAI that launched on November 30, 2022. Founded in late 2015, OpenAI is led by Sam Altman, and is backed by Microsoft.
Why has it created soooo much noise, you ask? Well, it’s for a number of reasons, but mostly for its ability to change the way we write and its potential to disrupt one of the world’s biggest companies… Google.
ChatGPT is capable of generating content across a range of different subjects. As an artificial intelligence chatbot, it is able to listen and take directions, and write text such as blogs, essays, advertisements, reports, software code and emails. It interacts in a conversational way, and has the ability to learn from large amounts of data to help it improve – also known as Large Learning Model.
However, there are several issues to understand before making a decision on how to use it for content and SEO for your business.
Firstly, for those who aren’t skilled writers, ChatGPT might be able to help you achieve a decent standard for your next report or blog post, but it’s likely you will still need a professional content writer to edit the copy to improve flow, structure and accuracy.
A question many businesses will have is: will ChatGPT be able to deliver the same creativity as a content marketing or copywriting professional who has taken the time to understand the tone of voice, and goals and target audience of your business? I doubt it. While it seems it can imitate, we should ask ourselves: can a piece of AI technology really replace all human creativity and our unique thoughts?
You might also be wondering… will the content be more generic as opposed to tailored to your business? It’s likely to simply imitate a particular style of writing – at least until ChatGPT receives enough feedback from users to improve. For example, you could ask ChatGPT to write an article in a similar way to those that appear in The New York Times.
On its website, OpenAI clearly states: “ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers.” ChatGPT also admits that it may occasionally produce biased content.
In terms of SEO, can ChatGPT help a business reach higher click throughs on search engines, as opposed to attempting to engage your audience and target market? Well, it shows enormous potential for revolutionising the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) world, but while Google is still the number one search engine, you need to be careful with AI-produced content. This is because Google has continued penalised websites and businesses with low-quality or auto-generated content. It can actually detect if a piece of content is AI-generated by searching for various patterns and inconsistencies in the writing style. It also examines the quality of the content that has been published by a particular website.
It's also important to note that ChatGPT has many educational facilities and universities worried. In fact, the New York City Department of Education has already banned its use over fears of cheating. Business owners and marketing professionals using ChatGPT to create content need to be careful of potential plagiarism. It’s new technology so there’s yet to be a lawsuit to set the standard.
Earlier this week, CEO of publishing group, The Brag Media, Luke Girgis, took to LinkedIn to confirm that the company would be testing the effectiveness and viability of using artificial intelligence in its articles.
The Brag Media, which publishes the likes of Variety Australia and Rolling Stone Australia, is one of the first publishing businesses to confirm it is experimenting with ChatGPT. Although it is not the first news outlet to utilise AI technology. The Associated Press claims on its website that it was "one of the first news organisations to leverage artificial intelligence", beginning in 2014.
Girgis stated in his post that AI does not mark the end of the news writer: "Just as the invention of the calculator didn’t devalue mathematicians, and photoshop didn’t devalue the artist, AI writing won’t devalue the journalists and news writers."
The question on everyone’s lips is: will ChatGPT become the next global tech behemoth to change our lives? Only time will tell, but we’re certain it won’t replace creative humans.
At Reeton Media, we specialise in content marketing that connects, engages and inspires. Contact us on (02) 9825 9600 to organise a personalised content marketing brainstorming session for your brand or business.