Who’s afraid of the big bad AI?
I am a marketer, comms and brand reside at the very core of who I am and what I am passionate about. Throw in there a bit of motivational psychology, nlp and the theories behind how people learn and retain information and in a work context that is pretty much me.
Words fascinate me and the subtleties of which word to use where to set the right tone, deliver the right message or memorably educate, inspires and irritates me in equal measure on a daily basis. I admire those that always know the right thing to say and can engage and empower with nothing more than a pen (well keyboard now, but that doesn’t quite bring the right mental image).
There is an art and a science to writing copy, but in my na?ve little world I had always felt it was the art that really made words sing.
Then came the machines…. Creating copy faster, more succinctly based on function, formula and efficiency. And with the machines came the fear – Skynet was going to take all our jobs, temperamental copywriters with their addictions to coffee and creative thought processes would simply be replaced by Jarvis, Jonny-5 or even, god-forbid, HAL.
I should probably mention at this point, whilst I embrace technology and am open to all the very many benefits that it provides us each in our everyday lives – caveat: I am also the person that is so much of a control-freak that she doesn’t really trust the cruise-control on her car…
Anyway…
Rewind to earlier this year, whilst I was writing the customary article looking at the year ahead and the challenges and possibilities we face in the world of the “permacrisis”, I quickly realised that with the beta release of ChatGPT I was going to have to give chatting to Wall-E on steroids a go…
Not going to lie, I played a lot…. Some of it was quite good…. others, not so much. One of my favourite interactions was its response to “should copy writers be concerned about what ChatGPT can do?”
“Copywriters should not be afraid of what ChatGPT can do. As an AI language model, ChatGPT can generate human-like text, but it does not have the creativity, nuance, or understanding of human emotions and experiences that human copywriters possess.
While ChatGPT can be a useful tool for generating content, it cannot replace the creative and strategic thinking that goes into crafting effective copy. Copywriting involves not just writing, but also understanding the target audience, their needs and desires, and the brand's tone and messaging.
Moreover, ChatGPT is a machine learning model that is only as good as the data it has been trained on. It is still limited by its training data and may not always produce the most effective copy or be able to understand the nuances of a specific industry or brand.
In summary, while ChatGPT can be a useful tool for copywriters, it cannot replace the creativity, strategic thinking, and understanding of human emotions and experiences that human copywriters possess. Copywriters should instead see it as a tool to augment their skills and improve their efficiency, rather than as a threat to their profession.”
So whilst video may have killed the radio star, even by its own admission Chat GPT is still a way off being able to kill off the comms officer, although, ironically, I am not sure that I could have said it better myself...