Is ChatGPT The End of Copywriters?
Much has been said about ChatGPT and there is a sense the world is somewhat enthusiastic that ChatGPT signals the beginning of the end of copywriters and marketers. While the literal job as a copywriter may evolve, rendering the traditional writing part of the role redundant, I think we are here for a while yet.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022. It is built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3 family of large language models and has been fine-tuned using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques.
Benefits of AI Assistant like ChatGPT
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assistants like ChatGPT are likely to significantly impact the way we deliver copywriting and content writing services — in a good way. AI can potentially help:
- Basic keywords and market research tasks
- Preparation of initial document and content drafts
- Explain concepts and definitions
- Assist with workload in Marketing teams
- Maybe even redraft complex advice to make them simpler
However, it needs to be used with great care as ChatGPT is a masterful deceiver.
In some instances, I have seen it make up names and cite irrelevant case studies. Recently I asked ChatGPT to generate a blog post draft listing five Australian female business owners from a migrant background. Only two out of the five women cited by ChatGPT were Australians from migrant backgrounds. A further two attempts at ChatGPT using different prompts still generated inaccurate results. The time I took to fact-check, edit and proofread was equivalent to the time I would’ve used if I researched the article on my own.
A recent study by Stanford University showed that software developers using an AI Assistant produced worse code than developers who did not use AI. So it is essential for marketers and business owners who are experimenting with ChatGPT at present to double-check its output.
As for AI crushing copywriters and content marketers — I do not buy that. Yet.
My experience as a marketer and founder of Sincere Copy shows me that people seeking marketing and copywriting assistance are okay with a DIY solution up to a point but they almost always want a human to give their stamp of approval to the solution. Copywriting and content marketing is about creating persuasive content to convince users to take an action at the end of the day, of which, trust is paramount. At least at present, AI has yet to master generating accurate content to create that trust.
I expect to see great opportunities for copywriters and marketers who use AI to augment their client offerings. The example I give is that Excel made it much easier for people to do sums and photocopier made it easier for people to make copies of documents rather than relying on typists. But the number of people in organisations with numeracy and administration skills has remained the same. They have just been freed up from routine math and administrative tasks to provide higher-level judgment-based advice.
So embrace AI, because it is here and we have no alternative.
This article was originally published on Sincere Copy. When I am not mothering, I’m a corporate marketer and communications professional for over 10 years and I love helping small business owners share their brilliance through wordsmithing, copywriting and creating content that resonates with their audience.
