ChatGPT and Advertising - Does it replace or co-create?

John McCarthy, an American computer scientist who is credited with coining the term 'Artificial Intelligence', had predicted in 1955 that machines would be able to learn from experience, just like humans. We have not reached that stage yet, but Artificial Intelligence is taking giant strides gradually.

After its release to the public in November, 2022 ChatGPT spread like wildfire with rave reviews about its capabilities over social media. People worldwide all of a sudden were amazed to see a technological platform that could strike a conversation with them and help them with multiple tasks with near human precision.

Powered by the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) architecture and trained over vast amounts of text data ChatGPT can understand and respond to natural language, making it useful for a wide range of applications. A wide range of domains spanning across customer service, healthcare, finance, education and marketing started to adopt ChatGPT after its release.

As a seasoned creative, I was baffled by ChatGPT's abilities too, more specifically when it comes to the pace at which it generates copy upon giving instructions. The very next moment, though for a 'split second', it occurred to me 'what if it replaces the copywriters in my ad agency?', I know this is a very silly thought, as I'm someone who 'always' believes in the human/emotional aspect of advertising which can't be replaced by machines 'ever'. But my naughty self made me ask ChatGPT to give some 'creative headlines' to advertise an online shopping portal, and mind you the output was nothing superior to 'bullcrap'. I was expecting something as exciting as 'aur dikhao' or 'pappu pass hogaya' (of course in English). Let alone those, but the headlines ChatGPT blurted out were 'banal' to say the least.

With the above test, I felt assured that ChatGPT can never replace (at least in the foreseeable future) an 'original advertising writer' who crafts his ideas based on cultural nuances and emotions. And advertising is heavily based on connecting with these emotions across cultures and audience segments.

Language is a crucial element in advertising as it plays a significant role in how consumers perceive and engage with a product or service. Advertising language can create positive or negative associations that influence consumer behavior. Moreover, the language should also be compelling, using persuasive techniques such as emotional appeals, storytelling, and humor to engage and resonate with the audience.

And more importantly, as advertisers, our job mostly revolves around contextualizing what is going around in the world and finding ways to integrate the brand into the zeitgeist. But when it comes to writing advertising headlines/ideas ChatGPT mostly gives you lackluster and drab output. While ChatGPT is great at understanding and responding to human inputs, it cannot come up with creative or original ideas for sure. Obviously, AI generated content lacks emotional depth, personal touch, and cultural understanding.?

But hey, I'm not cynical and completely dismissive of ChatGPT and its abilities. Like every technology, it does have its applicability, and that is being an efficient counterpart to the one who is using it. To a creative person, there are certain jobs that are quite mundane and unexciting - say, writing headlines and descriptions for dozens of digital display ads, writing website banners, SEO articles, occasional boilerplate copy etc. Now, all these boring jobs can be delegated to ChatGPT and the creative can focus on much bigger tasks like generating groundbreaking campaign ideas. So, it is all in making ChatGPT your best buddy or an able assistant by focusing on what's more important as an 'original thinker' or a writer.

Also, there are several areas where ChatGPT can be applied in digital marketing- in areas like SEO content creation, display ad writing, e-mail marketing etc. Of note, with ChatGPT some things were unbelievably good, like understanding what a brand idea is, how to apply it, and coming up with one to match the brand brief in 'three seconds flat', ChatGPT's understanding of the brief was 'remarkable' to say the least.

I have also tried my hand at asking ChatGPT to give a couple of brand names for one of my clients, and it cranked out dozens of them, each time a different one when I kept on asking repeatedly. But here again, the limitation was with understanding how those word choices fit into culture along with their influence on the mindset of the target audience - there's still a long way to go!

Leave alone 'emotions' and 'cultural understanding' which play a critical role in advertising; the biggest limitation for ChatGPT or any other AI that would follow is 'AI has no concept of truth' - it actually doesn't know what 'truth' and 'fiction' really are. AI solely depends on the facts and biases it is fed and trained upon, so ChatGPT can even spit 'thoughtless' and 'inaccurate' nonsensical copy and still believe it is 'right'.

I would love to end with a quote from the legendary French philosopher Voltaire... 'Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers'.

And we as humans are special in 'asking questions', the right ones.

How did you find ChatGPT? What were your experiences fiddling with it? Love to read your comments.?

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