Will ChatGPT take over?

March 13, 2023

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have no doubt heard all the chat (see what we did there?) about ChatGPT, an AI tool that claims to be able to write, well, anything.

Released towards the end of last year, it began life as a chatbot, entering into realistic text-based conversations with users, before its potential was quickly realised and people started using it for essays, to solve complex problems and write speeches.

So, if ChatGPT is capable of writing pretty decent content, are we, as a PR agency, worried about it? After all, a great deal of our work involves writing content for clients; could this AI tool put us out of a job?

It’s a good question, and a quick internet search reveals 690,000 hits answering just this – and that’s for a tool that’s less than three months old.

Looking at the results, the consensus so far is no – and we’d be inclined to agree.

While ChatGPT is capable of creating perfectly useable blogs or other content, they’re pretty standard and will still need a fair amount editing. It is trainable, insofar as you can set all sorts of tones of voice, themes and language styles, but it’s still lacking that special something.

It also gets things wrong; a particular issue if you’re relying on it to write something you know little about.

For example, psychologist Steven Pinker points to a recent example of ChatGPT confidently proclaiming that the US had had “four female presidents, including Luci Baines Johnson, 1973-77″. He also highlights another key function that AI can’t replicate – common sense. In another example, the tool was asked “If Mabel was alive at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., was she alive at noon?, (to which) it responded, ‘It was not specified whether Mabel was alive at noon. She’s known to be alive at 9 and 5, but there’s no information provided about her being alive at noon’.”

Clear issues then, and while the tool can be refined, it’s hard to see how problems like this can be totally eradicated.

The written word

You may be thinking that, when it comes to writing blogs, press releases and articles, you don’t need ChatGPT to think – and you’d be right. You can give it all the info you want including, specify the length, style, tone of voice and any keywords, and away it goes.

And while it will no doubt create a perfectly average piece of work, one key thing it will be missing is authenticity – the lifeblood of any brand.

As any PR professional knows, people buy from people, not machines. That means to build a successful, profitable brand, you need the human touch. You need to share your personal thoughts and opinions, not a cut-and-paste version of what others have said before.

Good content also forms part of an overall strategy, feeding into and off it, and letting your creativity and personality shine through.

Could it replace writing?

ChatGPT undoubtedly has its uses. It can be a great research tool, a great starting point or produce basic content. Sure, it might be a bit stilted, a little repetitive… but good enough.

Except, as a PR agency, we don’t believe in good enough, and we don’t think our clients do either.

For us, the difference between artificial intelligence and human intelligence is the difference between good content and great content. And in the fierce battle for people’s attentions, you really need to be great.

For more information on our (human-produced) content, throw us a bone on 01325 486666 or email info@harveyandhugo.com