Will ChatGPT replace content creators?

As a marketer who has worked with and for technology companies for the last 15 years, I’m simultaneously intrigued, enthusiastic, skeptical and concerned by disruptive technology.

I’ve watched the emergence of applications incorporating artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality, natural language processing and other mind-blowing capabilities with mixed feelings: The creative-thinking, strategic side of me immediately starts seeing potential use cases that could significantly benefit humanity, while also envisioning serious misuse that could wreak havoc on society. It’s no surprise, then, that I was both excited and anxious to try ChatGPT and see what potential it holds.

TL;DR – A lot! I’m in love with this tool and already feel like I’ll be at a massive loss if I lose access to it. It’s invaluable for research and can generate a useful outline or first-draft for you in seconds. However, it’s not quite ready for primetime, as they say. ChatGPT responses often are missing the human “je ne sais quoi” that I’m hoping will keep me gainfully employed until I reach retirement. In other words, ChatGPT on its own can create content that would be passable in many low-stakes use cases, but it’s not likely to be as compelling as human-written content. Combine ChatGPT with a talented human editor, though… and now you’ve really got something.

But let me back up a bit and explain why.

I’ve always enjoyed writing...and strategic writing has been a cornerstone of my marketing and communications career. Although I’ve known that AI can generate content, the previous examples I’ve encountered (mostly customer service chatbots on websites and badly translated ad copy from Chinese fashion websites on Facebook) gave me reassurance that my job wasn’t in danger quite yet.

Fast-forward to November’s launch of ChatGPT… The buzz around this tool was different, so I wanted to test its writing capabilities to see how it could positively—and negatively—impact my work life.

What Makes Compelling Content?

To give you some additional context for the rest of this article, I’m going to break the act of writing into three main components:

• Knowing WHAT INFORMATION needs to be said and to whom.
• Constructing the message so that it is UNDERSTOOD by the intended audience.
• Crafting it in a way that is MEMORABLE or enjoyable to read.

If you can do all three of those things well, you’ll be a successful writer. Which bring me to my ChatGPT experiment. I wanted to test how well ChatGPT handles each aspect of writing that I’ve described above.

First, it’s important to note the caveats presented to you when you go to the OpenAI site. Accuracy is not guaranteed, and the tool has only ingested data up through 2021, so more recent information likely won’t be reflected in its responses. There are safety guardrails in place to help prevent its misuse, but that may also result in content that could be considered biased.

I fed the system more than a dozen prompts and the results at first amazed me, then became somewhat predictable. Here’s what I learned about the tool:

RESEARCH: Get up-to-speed on most any topic with this invaluable prep tool

Here are some of the prompts I asked the tool when doing background research around a couple of technologies and industries:

1.????As of 2021, what are the biggest companies that do intelligent document processing?

2.????What are the three most pressing technology issues facing US hospital systems today and why?

3.????What are the largest management consulting firms with a Healthcare practice that operate in the US?

4.????What are the five largest biopharmaceutical companies in the world?

5.????What are the five most expensive pharmaceutical drugs and what are they used to treat?

6.????What are the five most dangerous (if taken incorrectly) pharmaceutical drugs, what conditions do they treat, and what are the ramifications of missed or incorrect doses?

7.????What companies have a digital medication management system (pill dispenser) that helps ensure patients take the medication properly and that allows hospitals and providers to monitor adherence and side effects via a digital dashboard?

You’ll note that some of my queries used terms like “biggest” and “most.” ChatGPT doesn’t like that because it knows there is a lag in the data it consumes. Consequently, it provides qualifiers like this one that accompanied the response to Question 4, “Note: These companies are subject to change as the ranking may vary based on many different factors like acquisition, merger, and change in revenue.”

Pro tip: If I was in Sales or interviewing for a position with a company, I’d definitely be using ChatGPT to research the target company’s business or industry.

CONTENT CREATION: Not a magic pill, but a handy way to create considerably more content in far less time.

For a head start on Marketing tasks, ChatGPT’s the bomb. Here are examples of some marketing- and content-related prompts I gave the tool:

8.?????Write a 500-word conversational blog about the benefits of Intelligent Document Processing to help businesses through digital transformation.

9.?????Create a go-to-market strategy for an Intelligent Document Processing company.

10.???Write a light-hearted, fun invitation to a networking event for Marketing Professionals, taking place on January 20th at Indeed Brewery with a cost of $10 that includes 1 beer.

11.???Write an ad for a pair of boot-cut, mid-rise jeans that come in several washes (including distressed) available in women's sizes, plus tall and petite sizes, aimed at readers of Town & Country magazine.

?12.???Write a session abstract for a presentation on how remote, asynchronous exam development increases a credentialing organization's DEI efforts by making it easier for all kinds of people to participate. Give examples and include three audience takeaways.

The responses to these prompts were surprisingly good—and lightning fast. But the blog, while accurate, lacked any examples, quotes, analogies, or any of the other things that would make for compelling reading. However, it provided a great framework that could be expanded upon, and in the future, I might ask it to incorporate a relevant story to see what I get. The GTM strategy response to Question 9 was straight out of a textbook and not particularly helpful in terms of being customized to the product or industries it serves, but for someone who doesn’t have a lot of experience creating marketing plans, it could provide helpful information to consider. The response to Question 10, the networking invitation, could have been cut-and-pasted into LinkedIn with an accompanying template graphic with the whole task completed in about five minutes. ?? The ad produced in response to Question 11 was boring, but it included all the relevant info. (However, I’m not a subscriber to T&C, so I have no idea whether the ad would speak to its demographic.)

Question 12 will look familiar to some of my former colleagues, many of whom know that I don’t particularly enjoy writing session abstracts. Like many B2B marketers, I consider it a necessary evil, because—although industry presentations are great organic marketing opportunities—writing and submitting session abstracts for them can be...um... tedious. Unfortunately, ChatGPT let me down on this one. When I asked it to “give examples,” it confused exam development with exam delivery, and it gave the abstract an unacceptably boring title (when every marketer knows a snappy title is key to getting accepted). ??

BUT WHAT ABOUT “ALL THE FEELS”? Can ChatGPT really convey the whimsy, angst and passion that makes us human?

As the last part of my ChatGPT test, I wanted to really suss out the tool’s capabilities to think and write creatively, to express feelings and emotion. To that end, I asked a series of imaginative prompts:

Prompt: Assume, as a young man, Benjamin Franklin had a love affair with his best friend's wife and write a fictional letter from her to him breaking off the relationship.

The response included the emotion you would expect, but in a rote manner. There was little that indicated the recipient was Ben Franklin other than the greeting of “Dear Benjamin.” So I tried again with something more specific:

Prompt: Write a fictional love letter between Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy that includes accurate facts about each of them.

The response for this one was much better and included the first film she saw him in, the first film they did together, and other little touches that related to their personal love affair as well as their relationship as professional colleagues.

Then—just for fun—I asked:

Prompt: Write a humorous story about a bunny who wants to be a wolf in the style of Dr. Suess (note: I incorrectly spelled Seuss)

The response for this was definitely a bit “off.” While I believe ChatGPT knew what I meant despite the misspelling, it definitely struggled with the rhyming. One verse was way off base, but it did make me laugh out loud:

So they told Bernie with a sigh

“You can't be a wolf, even if you try

You may have the heart of a wolf

But the body of a bunny is quite a drawback”

Quite a drawback, indeed.

A couple of days later, I had the idea to propose the exact same prompt (misspelling and all) to see if I would get the exact same response. Here’s the interesting thing: I got a completely new adventure and the second story rhymed much better than the first!

IN CONCLUSION: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em...or at least understand ’em.

Evaluating the tool using my “What makes compelling content” criteria above, I’d say Chat GPT has the first two components down but still has a ways to go on the third. (Whew!) The research version of ChatGPT is easy to use, free, and also a little addictive—so the best way to understand what it can and can’t do is just to try it yourself. There’s no stopping this technology, but the better we understand it, the more likely we are to anticipate problems (and solve for them) before things get too out of hand.

MARKETING TAKEAWAYS:

• Garbage in/garbage out – Like a Google search, the better your prompt, the better the response you’ll get.
• If you know there is a large body of information available on a topic, but don’t want to spend hours Googling and sifting through sources, ChatGPT is an excellent tool. It won’t provide sources, though, so you can’t cite where the information came from. If you’re referencing hard data like statistics, you’ll want to Google them independently to find the source and ensure their accuracy. (Bonus: If you’re easily distracted and prone to going down internet rabbit holes, ChatGPT may also help you keep more focused on your research task.)
• Keep in mind that there is a lag in data. If you’re researching something that is evolving quickly—technology, politics, medicine, pop culture—you will still want to do a traditional Google search.
• If you just need to create content for something that is relatively low-stakes (like my networking invitation example above), by all means, give ChatGPT a go.
• If you need to create high-stakes, compelling content, use ChatGPT to draft or outline sections and then go in and edit carefully to ensure the end result is accurate and meets your needs. You’ll save loads of time and chances are that the ChatGPT might give YOU some prompts of additional ideas or concepts to include in your piece.

Have YOU given ChatGPT a try? Please share your thoughts below.