With today’s advancements in artificial intelligence, more and more writers and content marketing agencies rely on an AI text generator to produce content. The reason comes as no surprise: modern AI writing tools are no longer the shoddy text generators of the past. Today’s versions are far more sophisticated – and it’s becoming harder and harder to distinguish synthetic text from human writing.
The rise of AI content generation has unveiled a new dilemma for brands and businesses. Should you worry about hiring writers or content marketing agencies that use AI? What are the repercussions of using AI text on your content marketing strategy? And finally, how can you distinguish AI content from human writing?
Why Do Writers Use AI Text Generators?
The primary purpose of an AI writing tool is to help human writers generate large amounts of copy faster. Content marketers, copywriters, authors, and bloggers reap the most of its benefits, especially when writing headlines, emails, blog posts, web content, and social media ads.
But AI writing isn’t a new invention. For years, tech-savvy content creators have used AI-based writing assistants to help with generating content. Tools like Grammarly check grammar and offer suggestions on style, wordiness, and tone; QuillBot can paraphrase, summarize, and help with citations, while Jasper is powerful enough to generate an entire blog or book (though not always of the best quality).
It’s the time-saving and cost-cutting benefits of an AI text generator that writers and content marketing agencies find irresistible, sometimes to the detriment of clients looking for human-made, high-quality content.
How Do AI Content Writers Work?
AI writing tools utilize Narrow Artifical Intelligence and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to produce natural and engaging text. These tools require human input to generate new content, such as a keyword, description, phrase, or paragraph.
And while many of today’s AI writing assistants are helpful for basic text generation, such as short lines of product descriptions or headlines, they often struggle with generating long-form copies like opinion pieces and thought leadership content. Here, grammar falters, continuity suffers, and ideas may appear conflicting, even when utilizing advanced AI text generators using more sophisticated language models like the GPT-3.
What Are the Pros and Cons of AI Text Generation?
Businesses should consider the pros and cons of hiring writers who use AI-generated content before leveraging the technology for their content marketing efforts. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of using AI writing tools.
Pros
- Speed. AI writing tools can help writers generate large amounts of copy in a short time.
- Better composition. AI tools can spot grammatical errors and inconsistencies in syntax, sentence structure, and tone, ultimately leading to higher-quality content.
- Improved research. More sophisticated text generators have an incredible depth of research, allowing writers to develop more substantial and fact-filled copies.
- Easily jumpstart writing. AI content tools may help with the first step of writing – generating an outline. Writers can use the content derived from AI writing tools as the basis of their initial research.
Cons
- No originality. Google loves original copy, and AI writing tools cannot generate new ideas or data. These tools are built to merely analyze existing content on the Internet within the user’s parameters. In other words, they create copycat content with no new opinions or ideas.
- Lack of critical thinking. AI generators cannot accurately develop content based on quickly changing topics, current events, or issues where opinions are divided. The most sophisticated language model, GPT-3, still struggles with subjects that have no consensus (e.g., politics, gun laws, abortion laws). They also have difficulties composing technical articles that require specialized knowledge.
- Inaccuracy. An AI text generator may develop inaccurate content or fake news that can damage your company’s reputation. These tools cannot detect biased content or offensive text.
- Lack of creativity and human emotion. Figures of speech add spice to writing and make it more engaging, but AI generators struggle with analogies or metaphors. They also fail at conveying human emotions or understanding cultural nuances.
Should I Be Concerned if My Writer Uses AI Text Generators?
Yes and no.
It’s hard to ignore the benefits of AI content generators. By weeding out grammar, sentence structure, and tone inconsistencies, they serve as a second pair of eyes to a writer’s first draft. In addition, AI text generators speed up the writing process by giving writers a base outline or initial research. If you pay your writers by the hour, AI tools can help them work more efficiently, thereby reducing costs.
However, there are reasons to be wary of writers who use an AI text generator, and the reasons lie in the differences between AI-assisted and AI-generated writing.
- AI-assisted writing relegates AI writing tools to mere assistants that can enhance or speed up content creation. Here, AI tools are used to automate the elements of content creation, but with strong human oversight. The writer takes a final look and vets the content for accuracy.
- AI-generated writing delegates the entire writing process entirely to the AI. Here, writers don’t step in. They do not vet the content for accuracy, coherence, or structure and submit the written work as is.
In summary, good writers practice AI-assisted writing; they use AI writing tools to speed up and improve the quality of their work, but they never leave the picture. They rigorously check AI-generated content for errors and inaccuracies before submitting the piece to their clients. Conversely, bad writers turn to AI-generated writing with no human oversight. This, in turn, can be detrimental to your content marketing strategy.
How Can I Make Sure My Writer Uses AI Generators Judiciously?
It’s essential that you interrogate your prospective writer or content marketing agency about their procedures for using AI writing tools. Here are some questions to ask:
- How are AI writing tools integrated into your content writing process?
- What AI writing tools do you use, and how do these tools influence your content submissions?
- Are content run through an editor and vetted for accuracy before submission?
- What steps do you take to improve content developed by an AI?
How Can I Spot AI Writing?
If you want to know if your writer relies heavily on an AI text generator to develop content, consider using these tools:
- Giant Language Model Test Room (GLTR): this system aims to detect if a piece of text was written by a language model algorithm. Learn more about it here.
- GTP-2 Output Detector Model: This online demo shows the probability that a piece of text is real or fake.
- On-page.ai: This AI entity explorer has an AI detection feature that can detect AI-written content.
Trust Hands-Off Publishing for Your Content Marketing Needs
With the popularity of AI content generators, being wary of hiring writers and agencies who abuse them is a valid cause for concern. AI generators are indispensable to modern writing when used judiciously, but clients must vet their writers thoroughly to determine how these tools fit into their writing process.
Hands Off Publishing, a content marketing agency, vets and hires native English writers who must go through 3 months of paid training before writing for clients. Their writers are taught how to effectively use AI writing tools to develop content that generates results without losing the all-important human touch. Learn more about Hands-Off Publishing here.
