“AI has become an increasingly important tool in the realm of content creation. With its ability to quickly analyze and understand large amounts of data, AI can help content creators generate new ideas, identify trends, and create more engaging and personalized content.

One of the key ways that AI is being used in content creation is through the use of natural language processing (NLP) technology. This allows AI systems to understand and interpret human language, making it possible for them to analyze large amounts of text data and identify patterns and trends. This can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as generating ideas for new articles or identifying popular topics to write about.

Another important use of AI in content creation is through the use of machine learning algorithms. These algorithms can be trained to analyze large amounts of data and identify patterns and trends that may not be immediately obvious to humans. This can be particularly useful for identifying trends in consumer behavior or identifying popular topics to write about.

One of the biggest benefits of using AI in content creation is its ability to help content creators create more personalized and engaging content. By analyzing large amounts of data, AI can help identify the interests and preferences of individual users, and use this information to create content that is more likely to resonate with them. This can help content creators create content that is more likely to be shared and engage with their audience.

In conclusion, AI is becoming an increasingly important tool in the world of content creation. With its ability to quickly analyze and understand large amounts of data, AI is helping content creators generate new ideas, identify trends, and create more personalized and engaging content. As AI technology continues to advance, it is likely that we will see even more ways in which AI is used to help content creators produce high-quality content.”

Hello human! The 320 words of “high quality” blog content you see above were spewed out by ChatGPT, an OpenAI initiative, when I sent it the prompt “Write a blog about AI in content creation”. Once you’ve picked your jaw off the floor (or not, depending on how much you’re keeping touch with the goings on in the world of AI), let’s talk.

The future is here, and it is now. We are in the age of bots and AI, in that dreaded age when machines will indeed take over human jobs. Turns out, it’s not just jobs like soldiering and assassination. AI is set to take away the jobs of bloggers, social media managers and the like as well. Perhaps the jobs of editors too!

Or is it? What does it even mean for AI to write a blog? What knowledge/insights/entertainment would you derive from such a piece of content? You will undeniably gain information in a well-structured, grammatically correct format. But will AI have the capability to make a sly reference to popular culture that may leave you chuckling? Will it be able to read the tea leaves and make connections between seemingly random ideas and events and offer startling forecasts (which may be wildly off)? 

I posit that these are very human things. The machines may be learning how we write, but they are not (yet) capable of making the leaps of faith that the human brain does. And keep in mind, the human hive mind is very active – my dire predictions may trigger a thought process in your mind that leads you to write something else or take some action that may spawn a totally different future for AI. We’re 8 billion strong and it’s going to take some incredible machine power to cow us down!

A eulogy for budding mediocrity. Foolish bravado apart, I’m convinced that AI-generated blogs will find their place in our content toolkit. And when that happens, it will separate the fine craftsmen and craftswomen from the also-ran opportunistic ‘content writers’. Why struggle to teach someone the nuances of language, grammar and structure when ChatGPT can ably generate typical marketing blogs and listicles? The sea of mediocre writing that the information era had unleashed may become a lake soon.

The chaff will get separated from the wheat pretty fast. Good writers will rise to the surface, and offer points of view that will continue to engage readers. There may be machine vs human contests – think of the Kasparov and Deep Blue matches in the mid 1990s – which he won 4-2. The world of chess is thriving (and humanly alive) two decades later. 

As someone on Twitter said, the days of “Verified Human ” are not far off – we may soon be employing technology such as Blockchain to stamp a piece of writing as human as it makes its way through the labyrinths of the internet.

Passing the Turing Test – happening soon at an AI near you. This doesn’t mean AI will stick to listicles. The machines’ ability to learn and get better is enormous. Projects such as Jabberwacky are looking squarely to build AI that passes the Turing Test (a classic test for intelligence in a computer – requiring it to give replies that makes it indistinguishable from a human). 

One thing that almost certainly will happen is generic-purpose content AI companies will have to retool very fast and specialise – or lose out in the competition with OpenAI.

Is it panic time yet? Should content people abandon their careers? You probably already use AI and don’t know it. That nifty tech that Google uses to complete your sentences in Google Docs and Gmail is AI after all. Or the Hemingway App. They’ve been around for a while now, and they’re learning how to write as you feed them inputs. They’re learning how you write!

Historically, we’ve never been averse to using tools to write. Think of the long march of human civilization when the first neanderthal scratched with a handy sharp rock to create hieroglyphics on the cave wall. Onwards to the pen, the typewriter and the word processor. Heck, even the dictionary and thesaurus are tools that help us build content. Yet, something feels different now – while all these tools made parts of our job easier, none of them had the temerity to think for us. They didn’t learn from us, and outpace us in spewing out content – bland or otherwise. 

I think I speak for the average content person when I say “Bring it on!” We may sink without a trace in the years (months?) to come. But we may – and that’s the tantalising hope – we may just rise above AI-driven “noise” in the content world and hone our craft to be as sought after as Swiss watchmakers, Benarasi saree weavers or artisanal winemakers and chocolatiers. 

Keep reading, comrades, and keep writing. The war is at our backyards but we shall not give up.

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

–Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing