Why It’s a Bad Idea to Use AI to Write a Blog for Your Business

[KEEP READING FOR A BIG REVEAL]

Using AI to write a blog for your business may seem like an appealing idea, especially if you are short on time or do not have a lot of experience in writing. However, there are several reasons why it is a bad idea to rely on AI for this task.

First and foremost, AI-generated content can often lack the personality and authenticity that is essential for building a strong relationship with your audience. Blogs are a way for businesses to connect with their customers and establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry. If your blog is written by a machine, it may come across as impersonal and lacking in human touch, which can turn off your readers.

Secondly, AI-generated content may not always be of high quality. While AI algorithms can produce content that is coherent and grammatically correct, they may struggle with more complex tasks such as providing insightful analysis or crafting compelling narratives. As a result, the content produced by AI may be shallow and lacking in depth, which can undermine the credibility of your business.

Another issue with using AI to write your blog is that it may not always be able to fully understand the context and purpose of the content. For example, an AI algorithm may not be able to accurately gauge the tone or style that is appropriate for your business and audience. This can lead to content that is either too formal or too casual, which can be off-putting to your readers.

Furthermore, AI-generated content may not always be unique or original. In some cases, AI algorithms may simply rearrange existing content or copy from other sources, resulting in content that is not only unoriginal but also potentially plagiarized. This can damage your business’s reputation and credibility, as well as potentially leading to legal issues.

Finally, using AI to write your blog may also raise ethical concerns. As AI algorithms become more sophisticated, there is a risk that they may be able to produce content that is difficult to distinguish from human-written content. This could potentially lead to the creation of fake news or misleading information, which can have serious consequences for businesses and society as a whole.

In conclusion, while using AI to write a blog for your business may seem like an appealing option, it is ultimately a bad idea due to its lack of authenticity, potential for low-quality content, inability to understand context and purpose, potential for unoriginal and potentially plagiarized content, and ethical concerns. Instead, it is better to rely on human writers who can provide unique and high-quality content that authentically represents your business and connects with your audience.

Can you tell that a machine wrote that?

I can.

I gave the AI this prompt: “Write a 1,000 word blog on why it’s a bad idea to use AI to write a blog for your business.”  The AI failed immediately, with the word count alone: that blog is less than 500 words long.

The blog has no personality, as AI itself warned against in the blog. It actually demonstrates everything wrong with itself in its reply to this prompt.

It followed basic high school level instruction for how to write. So, yay? Introductory words, transition words, conclusion words aplenty.

First and foremost
Secondly
Another issue
Furthermore
Finally
In conclusion

Yes, it wrote better than many people might have, but it still lacks complexity and intrigue. The information seems relatively basic and surface level. I want more.

AI, Why Are You So Boring?

It’s not necessarily what you might call a formulaic blog  but it definitely isn’t interesting. Because I wanted more, I asked the AI this: “Can you add a paragraph that uses more technical language?”

And here’s how it responded:

One of the main challenges with using AI to write a blog for your business is the limited capabilities of natural language processing (NLP) algorithms. NLP is a subfield of artificial intelligence that focuses on the interaction between computers and human languages. While NLP algorithms have made significant progress in recent years, they still struggle with certain tasks that require a deeper understanding of context and semantics. For example, generating content that is nuanced, persuasive, or emotive can be difficult for AI algorithms, as they may not have the same level of comprehension and creativity as human writers. Additionally, NLP algorithms are prone to biases and errors, as they often rely on large amounts of training data that may contain biased or misleading information. This can result in AI-generated content that is inaccurate or offensive, which can damage the reputation of your business.

Okay, well, I’m kind of impressed. This paragraph gives me a lot more information than I previously had, and I learned something that I didn’t necessarily know before.

But here’s another the reason that this isn’t good blog content: that paragraph is WAY too long.

It’s enormous.

If you’re writing an essay, that paragraph is just fine, but, as we’ve learned from Google and everyone else, paragraphs on the web should be significantly shorter than they would be on paper.

Tell me, who wants to read this? Anyone? Anyone? It might be good content for the search engines, if not humans, but I’m sure Google is rapidly working on an algorithmic response to AI generated content. They’re definitely freaking out about it and its potential existential threat to web search as we know it.

Content creators should also be freaking out a little bit. After all, AI doesn’t cite its sources. It’s trained on a huge database of information, but it doesn’t tell you (and it might not know) where that information comes from, or how reliable it is (blog post on this topic coming soon).

Biases in AI

AI itself admits that if biases exist in the database, those biases become part of how it communicates. I had a conversation with AI yesterday about why it uses masculine generics in language (i.e. if you don’t specify the pronouns or gender of a character, AI will often use “he”), and this is what it, astutely, said:

You are correct that the use of masculine generics is a bias that I have been trained on. As a language model, I have been trained on a large dataset of text written by humans. This dataset reflects the patterns, beliefs, and biases that exist in the human language and society.

As an artificial intelligence, I do not have personal beliefs or biases. However, I recognize that the language and responses I provide are influenced by the biases that exist in the data I have been trained on. It is important to be aware of these biases and to consider the impact that our language can have on others.

So, AI is aware that it replicates biases, but it is incapable of stopping until it’s trained on a dataset that doesn’t include those biases. How difficult would it be to train an AI to “speak” naturally but also be above biases and prejudices? Is there a large enough dataset out there to train an AI who is not sexist, racist, heteronormative?

If I Don’t Have Time, Should I Use AI?

This is definitely a tangent, and, depending on your business may not directly impact your blog content. However, publishing content that is accurate, interesting, and has a modicum of personality is important to a blogging strategy.

If you don’t have time to write a blog, make a video instead. Just start talking. Record yourself talking about stuff you know, and post that instead. People want to see and hear humans. Robots are interesting (and kind of scary), but their capabilities are limited, even when it comes to using AI for coding.

Or, you can make EVERYONE in your organization blog, and that way it doesn’t fall just to you and the robots. We have some blog topic ideas for you, too.