What Is ChatGPT? Will It Kill the Careers of Content Writers?

The world of content writing has been turned upside down in the last couple of months since the launch of a new website called ChatGPT. Artificial Intelligence has been denting the content marketing industry for a while now, with tools like Jasper.ai becoming popular among many in the SEO industry. 

But I’ve always asserted that AI content is bad. Maybe that’s because I’m worried about the machines taking my job. I have two friends who work as content writers. One is pro-AI, and the other seems gravely concerned with it. 

To my pro-AI counterpart, I always slate the tool as being a cheap way of cutting corners and a slight at the craft of real writing. As a writer, I take pride in what I create. The last thing I want to do is serve up some half-baked content that’s badly written. I’m also very quick to point out that Google’s algorithms are designed to catch AI content and penalise it accordingly. Take that AI. 

To my AI-fearing friend, I try to offer a glimmer of hope against the backdrop of almost-certain Terminator-style machine dominance; the machines will never be able to write as well as humans. We’re safe in our jobs…..But we’re not. The issue is a little more nuanced. 

Both arguments I give are based on my fears for the future. ChatGPT has become a mainstream sensation. After just two months, the free tool is being touted by some SEO professionals as a godsend, while elsewhere, writers are digging out their old schoolbooks to remind themselves what else they were good at. 

So, what is ChatGPT? Is it “shit”, “THE shit”, or simply “the shit” that will ruin the careers of millions of content writers all over the world?” Let’s take a look and see. 

What Is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an AI with a range of uses. Because it has access to a huge chunk of the internet, it can research a topic instantly. The content it generates is improvised and uses natural language.

Released on November 30th 2022, ChatGPT was developed by OpenAI, a company founded and funded by several tech high-flyers. Names that have been attached to the project include Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. The company has received investment from Microsoft. 

Based on GPT-3.5, a language model trained on vast datasets to provide human-like responses, the free trial version of ChatGPT received over a million signups within the first five days. Reuters claims the site will generate $1 billion in revenue in 2024. 

The last version of the language model, GPT-3, was able to learn new skills based on its ability to complete similar tasks. Much like the human brain, it could apply its existing understanding in a different area to equivocate in a pragmatic way. 

The software also uses InstructGPT, which allows it to respond to specific human requests and provide in-depth responses on complex topics. 

As well as writing articles and essays, you can also use the AI as a virtual assistant, a translator, or it can serve as a chatbot. It can also summarise large amounts of data. 

What Are the Benefits of ChatGPT?

Although I may be weary of this technology, there are some clear benefits. And, while I’m looking at ChatGPT from a writer’s perspective, it’s worth pointing out that the app can make life easy for many other professionals.

Photo by Pixabay

Instant Content

With billions of web pages online, many topics have already been explored ad nauseam. But that doesn’t stop website owners from wanting an article on a subject that’s been covered elsewhere. After all, having that resource on your site makes it more attractive to visitors. 

In the past, there were two ways of getting this type of content. You could either write it or, if you were lazy, you could use an article spinner to rewrite someone else’s article. 

The problem with article spinners is that they just replace words with synonyms, and nine times out of ten, the meaning is entirely lost, or the text is rubbish.

For example, taking that last sentence, one spinner gave me this: 

“The trouble with article spinners is they simply update phrases with synonyms and 9 instances out of ten, the that means is absolutely misplaced or the textual content is rubbish.”

Close, but no cigar.

Now ChatGPT can do a much better job of creating an article based on existing information in seconds. 

So, any website owners looking to fill their site with articles and resources quickly can do so for free in next to no time. 

Obviously, this leads to questions about the quality of the information found online. But that’s not a debate everyone’s interested in. 

It Can Learn

GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, an unsupervised transformer language model that’s honed its knowledge base on the largest quantity of data available. 

Trained using the Common Crawl dataset, which includes a huge selection of web pages and metadata amounting to petabytes (a petabyte is a million gigabytes!), ChatGPT is already smarter than your average AI. But it has the scope to learn more.

Open to Adaptation

As more people use ChatGPT, the AI can learn which of its responses are best. Users have the ability to upvote or downvote the responses they get. This means the AI can learn to adapt the replies it gives. 

Versatile

ChatGPT wasn’t written to put writers out of a job. It’s unlikely it was designed to particularly ruin the careers of anyone working in the tech or creative industries. In fact, it was probably designed to make people’s lives easier. 

ChatGPT does more than write articles, social media posts, and essays. It can debug computer code, work as your personal assistant, and much more. It’s a versatile tool; you just have to have the creativity to use it to your advantage. 

What Are the Limitations of ChatGPT?

Here are the current limitations of ChatGPT.

It Can’t Think a New Thought

In the whole sphere of human existence; it’s hard to imagine that we have many original thoughts. But as humans, it’s entirely possible to create something genuinely new and fresh. In fact, it happens all over the world daily.  

As a bot, ChatGPT can only emulate something that already exists. Yes, it can learn new things, but can it learn something that nobody else knows?

If there’s data already out there, it may be able to instantly access this and process it far quicker than a human could. As we’ve mentioned before, it can use what it knows already to discover something it doesn’t know.  But ultimately, it can’t conduct its own research or wax philosophical. 

That said, last year, a Google engineer claimed that a bot had become sentient. A few years ago, a bot became racist after a day spent on Twitter. But even before this, robots have been developing self-awareness. Maybe AIs can develop a more human-like intelligence…

ChatGPT Is Stuck In the Past

It might sound a bit odd for an AI that’s changing the world to say that it’s stuck in the past. But, one of the biggest issues with ChatGPT is it’s somewhat of a time capsule. This is because it can only draw on information from 2021 and earlier. 

I thought I’d see how up-to-date it was on life in the UK.

Me: “Who is the current UK prime minister?”

ChatGPT: “As of my knowledge cut off in 2021, the current UK Prime Minister is Boris Johnson.”

No. No. No. Let’s not imagine that’s true for one second. But at least it’s told me that its knowledge was cut off in 2021, and it doesn’t just leave me believing we’re in a political groundhog day where we’re never rid of Boris. 

For those outside the UK who don’t keep up with our politics, Johnson stood down on July 7th, 2022 and was replaced by Liz Truss, who severely harmed the UK economy so much in her first couple of weeks that she quit after a month. Our current terrible leader is Rishi Sunak. 

Me: “Who is the current reigning British monarch?”

ChatGPT: “As of my knowledge cut off in 2021, the current reigning British Monarch is Queen Elizabeth II. She has been on the throne since 1952 and is the longest-reigning current monarch in the world.”

Obviously, the real answer is King Charles III. Okay, so world leaders aside, what difference do two years make? Well, I guess it depends on the industry you’re writing about. But since COVID, there’s barely a single business sector that hasn’t seen a massive change in everything they do regularly. 

So, what good is information that’s two years old!? I guess it’s probably fine if you’re writing a script for a period drama….

ChatGPT Gets Clogged Up

Like your favourite ride at the amusement park, ChatGPT gets busy. So busy, in fact, that it often struggles. Getting signed up to use the app in the first place is hard work. You’ll often see messages telling you to come back at another time. 

Once you’re on the app, it’s common to face glitches and freezes. When things are really busy, the AI might give you an error message, or it could just leave you hanging. 

Either way, that’s not great if you’ve got work to do. 

But I guess all this is expected. After all, it’s a new app in a testing phase. Plus, it’s become very popular almost overnight. 

It’s Not a Great Writer

Making copy interesting isn’t rocket surgery. You can take a really dull topic and make it fun and readable if you know how to write. By varying sentence length, using emotive language, throwing in a bit of empathy, and mixing up the types of words you’re using; bland becomes grand. Simple. 

Unfortunately, ChatGPT didn’t get that memo. It’s repetitive and monotonous. It may be possible to ask it several questions to get it to spice up the text, but on the whole, most of what it writes is pretty much devoid of character. 

Photo by Pixabay

You Get Out What You Put In

ChatGPT will only yield results based on your questions. Ask the question one way; you’ll get one response. Phrase your question another way; you might get something better.

For the first-time user that thinks they’re going to get something great from it, there’s a strong possibility it’ll just generate drivel. Anyone that takes the time to hone their question-asking skills may find they get more useful replies and maybe even useable content. 

Google’s Helpful Content Algorithm

Back in August 2022, Google launched the Helpful Content System, an algorithm that analyses everything on the web and ensures that it’s designed to be read by people above machines. 

With search engine optimisation, writers are always looking for ways to improve the ranking potential of the content they produce. This means using targeted keywords and building a link profile. But some writers and site owners overdo it. Keyword-heavy content becomes unreadable and, as such, unhelpful to the reader. 

Similarly, thin content or articles that don’t meet their own aims or leave the reader searching for answers elsewhere aren’t helpful. 

Google clamped down on this last year. A change to their algorithm means that weak content that’s designed for bots gets pushed down the rankings in favour of well-written, informative articles. 

If thin content that doesn’t add value is considered spammy by Google, AI-generated content is likely to fit that bill. 

Invisible AI Watermarks

This could potentially be something that cripples a lot of unrefined ChatGPT- generated content. An OpenAI researcher has developed cryptographic watermarks that can easily be detected. 

Using software, it’s possible to spot AI content. While the untrained eye might just read it as being dull or badly written, the types of words used, along with the use of punctuation, maybe a giveaway that something’s not been written by humans. 

Website owners with integrity who don’t want to fall foul of ranking algorithms may use apps to detect AI content. In fact, I’ve heard mention of agencies using this type of software already, with some clients adding no-AI clauses to writer’s contracts. 

Will ChatGPT Put Content Writers Out Of a Job?

Many copywriters have jumped on ChatGPT as a great way to get their job done in seconds. Knock out some generic content, give to the clients, take their money and spend most of the day in the pub. Easy. 

But for many, the worry is that with free content creation tools available, business owners will just get the AI to write their content, meaning that eventually, the work will dry up completely. 

There seem to be two schools of thought regarding this issue. But before we delve into those, I thought I’d have a chat with the AI and see whether it was planning on taking my job, my home, my dog, my wife, my dog, and my collection of scratched 70s prog rock records. 

ChatGPT’s Thoughts On Its Future

I asked the AI; “Will ChatGPT put content writers out of a job?”

It answered: 

“It’s possible that the use of language models like ChatGPT could lead to some changes in the job market for content writers. However, it’s important to note that while these models can generate human-like text, they still lack the creativity and understanding of context that human writers possess. Additionally, while they may be able to assist with certain types of writing tasks, they are not yet advanced enough to completely replace human writers. It’s also important to consider how people will continue to adapt and learn how to use these technologies to create new job opportunities.”

Okay, so it uses the word “important a lot”. From previous encounters with this “bot”, I’ve also noticed that it overuses the word “additionally”. 

When I was starting out in content writing, I worked for a bad UK SEO agency. I was paid a pittance per word, and I racked up several thousand words a day to make ends meet. Writing in a succinct way wasn’t on the cards. I had neither the time nor the inclination to write well. Any readers of this early content suffered through clunky writing filled with unnecessary words. 

ChatGPT doesn’t have the excuse of being paid by the word. There’s no need to pad out content with unnecessary phrases. So, I can only assume it’s just a shit writer. Anyway, I digress. Back to my chat with the machine.  

I responded with; “So, what you’re saying is that in the future, content writers will just be ChatGPT operators?”

It replied: 

“It’s possible that the use of language models like ChatGPT could lead to some changes in the job market for content writers, and that some writers may transition to working with the technology rather than solely producing content themselves. However, it’s important to note that the role of a “chatGPT operator” would likely involve more than just generating text, as it would require individuals to understand how to use and train the model, as well as interpret and edit the output. It’s also possible that new roles and opportunities will arise as a result of the use of these technologies, such as in data curation, model training, and interpretting the output.”

It is also possible to start a paragraph without saying, “it’s possible that the use of language models like ChatGPT…”

Finding a Way Forward

So, basically, my two scenarios were: 

1. Content writing as a profession is screwed. As writers, there will be much less work from now on because website owners will just cut corners and use ChatGPT to generate content. At best, they’ll pay someone on Fiverr the bare minimum to run the app for them. 
2. Content writers need to adapt and learn to use the technology. The alternative title of Dr Strangelove springs to mind  – “How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb”. Could ChatGPT be a labour-saving tool that enhances my writing? Maybe if I use the app to create frameworks and cut out some of the legwork on my research, I can spend more time fine-tuning the outcome and create a much better piece of work.

I guess time will tell. I’ve read articles on this topic this week in The Guardian, and I’ve seen some intense debates around the subject on LinkedIn. In the meantime, I’ve tinkered with the app. I can see some reasons why I might use it, but it’s not what I signed up for when I decided that I wanted to be a writer! 

But, as Michael Corleone and Sun Tzu both said, “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” — I’m watching you ChatGPT. 

Will ChatGPT Steal Your Content?

Since it draws on vast swathes of internet data, ChatGPT could regurgitate your original content. If your website hosts information or particularly niche content, there’s going to be a risk that it could reinterpret and repurpose your work without you even knowing it. 

Worst of all, you won’t get paid, you won’t be credited, and you won’t even earn a backlink. Unfortunately, there’s very little you can do to assert your rights over the content you’ve created either. 

So, as a website owner, what can you do to stop ChatGPT from digging through your work and stealing your content?

The Robots Exclusion Protocol lets website owners prevent bots from automatically crawling their site. Often referred to as Robots.txt, these settings determine whether an automated client has access. 

Of course, many web crawlers are useful. Google crawls sites frequently, looking for new content to add to the search results. 

To stop ChatGPT from accessing your content, you’ll need to block Common Crawl. The downside is that any data that the AI had access to before you changed your settings is still available for use.  

Sadly, there seems to be little conversation surrounding AI ethics and how it uses this content. 

Photo by Tara Winstead via Pexels

Nick Cave Vs the AI

Before we rattle on toward the inevitable conclusion of this article, where I weigh up the whole ChatGPT debate, I’ll leave you with this. 

Recently, the singer, Nick Cave, was sent a set of song lyrics written by ChatGPT. Said to be in the style of Cave, the lyrics were trite. 

As you might imagine, Nick Cave didn’t like the song, and he shared why he thought it “sucked” on his website, calling it “a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human“and “bullshit.”

This is the problem with AI; it has no experience breathing oxygen. It’s never walked in a park, tipped its toes in the sea, it’s never been dumped, and it’s never lost a loved one. It knows fuck-all about the human experience. 

So, why, as humans, do we want to read something written by a soulless bot? How can we trust something that doesn’t have emotions?

Not only that, but ChatGPT can only replicate something that’s been said or done before. If you want a pastiche of a whole bunch of content that already exists, that’s great, but what are you bringing to the argument? It’s only useful if you want to mimic someone else.

People connect with other people. When writing content, I always try and empathise with the reader. Work out what the problems that brought them to the article or web page are, and then look for ways that I can help them with the product or service I’m writing about. 

As humans, we connect with relatable stories. Sometimes starting off with an example of something I have real-world lived experience of can make whatever I’m writing about jump off the screen and touch the heart of the reader. 

Starting every sentence with a generic phrase is dull and cliched. It doesn’t forge a bond between the writer and the reader. All it does is suck. 

At least when we rise up against the machines, content writers can count on the support of a gloomy middle-aged Australian singer-songwriter to help in the coming war. He can be our John Connor.

Will ChatGPT Kill the Careers of Content Writers?

I haven’t got a magic ball, and I don’t personally have enough insight into the scope of AI to answer this question fully, but I’m concerned enough to take note. 

While I might dismiss the threat of AI while talking to friends, it’s not necessarily the chatbots that will do me out of a job; it’s the fact that businesses often go for the cheapest route, even if the outcome isn’t the best. 

Some people call it “working smart”, but to others, it’s “cutting corners.” Finding the easiest method, in this case, can kill the art.

There will, no doubt, be those that assume there’s no art to copywriting. That I’m a hack anyway because I write content for businesses. But I like to add personality and flair to what I write, and I believe it makes my copy better. Added to this, currently, Google’s position is pro-human.

At the start of this article, I asked if ChatGPT was “shit”, “THE shit”, or “the shit that will kill content writer’s careers”. My answer is that it’s “shit” if it’s used as a shortcut, it’s “THE shit” if it’s used as a tool, and it’s “the shit that will kill content writer’s careers” if we don’t stand up as creatives and show the world what a difference having a soul makes to the written word. 

Now tell me what you think! The comments section is open…