How the Wordsmith AI turns my YouTube videos into posts. Almost.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Wordsmith, a new AI app worth looking at... perhaps. I'll explain my reservations in a minute.

In essence the app takes any video on your YouTube channel and turns it into a newsletter article or social media post.

And, no, it isn't another transcription app. I think it will eventually be even better than that. The key word here is 'eventually'.

ASIDE: I think Wordsmith is made by Restack Labs, but is it independent, or on behalf of the lovely people at Kit (the email provider formerly known as ConvertKit)? I wonder about this because the amazing Rafal Tomal designed thewordsmith.app site on the Rockbase theme and Pat Flynn of the Smart Passive Income podcast gives the software a rave review. If you know anything please let me know and I can correct this post. (There is no About page on thewordsmith.app site and no ownership info that I can readily see. I have written to Restack to find out more and to offer feedback and kudos in equal measure, but I haven't heard back yet.)

BEFORE I SAY ANYTHING ELSE, LET ME SAY TWO THINGS

1) I’m in awe of the engineers who put this software together. I believe your heart is in the right place. You’re trying to help people take action, post more, email more, connect more. And that I love. But (spoiler alert) I don't love Wordsmith. (Not yet.)

2) I started life as a tech journalist last century (before the IBM PC and the Mac were born). So I guess I'm also saying welcome to Luddite Central, I'm a dinosaur. Just saying.

Who is Wordsmith for?

If you’re short of time to write and you don’t know the current format du jour for social media and email posts – short lines, lots of space, candy floss content, that sort of thing – then this could be a useful $100-a-year SAAS spend to add to your budget.

How can you figure out if you like it?

Well, you can get a free trial which should be enough to give you a flavour of the thing. Because for some people Wordsmith will be really useful. Though, as ever with new products, you really need to make your own mind up. However, I will try to give you some insight, based on what happened during my brief trials with the software.

How does Wordsmith work?

You give the AI software an example of your writing style and it comes back with what it calls a house style. You can edit the house style if you like. But why would you? It says such nice things about you. Here’s the style guide Wordsmith came up with for me.

Authoritative and instructional? Expertise and confidence? Knowledgeable and experienced?

Nagging Doubts Ahoy... I can’t help wondering if the AI says this to all of us punters? Just a thought.

JUST A THOUGHT: Shall we check this out? When you get your free trial with Wordsmith – and you should – post your style guide in the comments and we’ll compare notes. Just a thought.

Creating posts from your videos on YouTube

On the main dashboard you first pick a video from your YouTube channel. Then the AI heads over to your channel and looks at the AI transcription of your video and then….

Wait a minute...

Did I hear me right?

The AI post-writer reviews the AI transcription of my video?

Aaaand what if the video itself has been AI generated?

Does AI post-writer rewrite AI transcript of AI video?

Can you see where this is going?

I think this could get very tortured, don't you?

Anyhow, I tried it. Because Wordsmith gives you a shot on 10 of your videos. But for conciseness, let me tell you what I found on just three of the videos.

Video #1: Wordsmith knows who Henry Moore is

A couple of summers back I was stunned at the home of Henry Moore – the guy who made those gigantic sculptures. And I drew a metaphor between writing huge books and Henry Moore crafting his huge sculptures. Here’s a short clip.

And here’s what Wordsmith has to say.

Gotta say I’m a bit impressed. I particularly like the references to Henry Moore, because without that metaphor the story is just 'how to write a big book'.

Video #2: Wordsmith knows what candy floss content is

Now I have to say this – I cheated with the next video. I chose one that didn’t have any words in it.

I know it was wrong, I shouldn’t have done it. But in a crazy kind of self-referential way, it worked. Here’s a quick clip from the video.

And here’s the intriguing post from Wordsmith…

Thing is, I didn’t say any of this in this video. Because, well, I didn't say anything in the video. So how could it… how… I mean, just, how?

Clearly this is borrowed from another corner of the internet, below broadcast depth.

I have to tell you this post IS on topic. But it’s a bit bland, isn’t it? Although I’m pleased it nailed my concept of candy floss content without any prompting from me.

Which, in a way, rather proves the point, don’t you think?

Video #3: Who on earth is Peter Hawkins?

OK, before we look at this third and final test piece, I have a question. Who the heck is Peter Hawkins?

First, here’s a clip from my video.

Aaaaaand here’s Wordsmith’s take.

So now I’m wondering if somewhere out there is a Peter Hawkins. And perhaps he’s making the same videos as me, but his AI posts talk about some random Steven Sonsino.

In other words, maybe the AI just got confused. It's an easy mistake to make, after all. Hawkinsino. Sonskins.

Or perhaps… heaven forbid... perhaps the AI just made him up?

Who knows?

Welcome to Blandness Central

OK, it has been fun running my videos through Wordsmith and seeing where the AI rejigs things to craft a more punchy 500-word take. And it does do that.

But you know what?

I think the posts end up all the same. They're formatted the same. They all sound the same. They are, to me, pretty soul-less.

And there’s the rub. I believe that Wordsmith edited out all my random Shakespeare quotes, it’s glossed over all my deep cut references to The Matrix and it’s completely ignored my love of all things Linkin Park. I feel numb.

In short, the AI has taken me out of my work. Which is why it's soul-less.

And I’m sorry, Wordsmith, I can’t share a soul-less self to the world.

The takeaways

1) Engineers great. Software not so great. (Yet.)

2) Wordsmith will be really good for you if you don’t like writing, or if you find writing a hurdle.

3) And Wordsmith will be really REALLY good for you if you don’t know the format for a reasonable social media post.

4) But if you DO like writing (and you do it well), and if you DO know how to format a social post, then run a hundred miles in the other direction.

Because for you Wordsmith is wrong.

In fact, I think they picked the wrong name for this.

It shouldn't be called Wordsmith, implying a level of craft.

It should be called Wordfluff.

And now I realise. I should have made this post as a video... so I could run it through Wordsmith.

Ohhhh, that's a great idea. Surely that’s my next video! Look forward to Wordfluff Reloaded, coming soon to a screen near you.

? Whether you go with Wordsmith or not right now, keep your eye on Restack Labs. If they can match the creativity of the post-writing software with the originality of the video creator they may yet have something.

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FYI if you'd like support crafting something meaningful and soulful outside the echo chamber that is LinkedIn – something like a book to share your vision and message – drop me a DM. Be a pleasure to help if I can. I'd say something about red pill blue pill about now, but it's been overused in too many social media posts. Sadly.