Artificial intelligence writing articles is something that’s becoming more and more common. Now, average Joes like you and me have access to powerful AI tools that can assist us as we brainstorm, create and write content for our blogs, websites, social media, and so on. But there are a few dangers that come to my mind when I think about artificial intelligence writing articles for us.
Don’t get me wrong. AI is cool, and I think it has a lot of potential for lots and lots of people in many sectors. But we need to be aware of the potential downsides too if we’re going to be responsible users of the tech.
Artificial intelligence writing articles could lead to lazy writing.
This is my biggest concern with people using AI to write. I’m concerned that many writers and content creators will rely too heavily on artificial intelligence to do the heavy lifting for them
They should use Ai to brainstorm ideas and assist their writing. But my concern is that they’ll expect an AI to spit out fully formed, well-written content that they’ll just copy and paste and claim as their own.
Or, if they at least try to put in some measure of effort, they’ll be too dependent on what the AI generates that they don’t tweak, adjust, or rewrite anything to fit their own unique style and thoughts.
A few days ago, an author I respect on Medium suggested that people use a particular AI tool to write entire posts for Medium. But that’s exactly the kind of laziness that concerns me. I love the idea of using AI to write articles. I am categorically opposed to the idea of artificial intelligence writing articles in their entirety and writers passing them off as their own unique content.
But that’s what some people are suggesting people do.
As I’ve said elsewhere, I love the idea of using artificial intelligence to help write articles or to help brainstorm ideas and topics or even to find fresh ideas for main points to write. But artificial intelligence writing articles in their entirety is a bad idea in my opinion.
AI’s can give incorrect information.
An AI isn’t an all-knowing entity. Artificial intelligence tools that can write articles typically work by taking an input and predicting the next likely word or phrase in a sequence to generate something that’s coherent. For examples, check out OpenAI’s website.
But that doesn’t mean their predictions are always accurate or that what they say will be factually correct. If you use an AI to assist your writing, it’s very important to proofread and fact check everything the AI generates and don’t just accept it at face value. This is one reason why I don’t think it’s a good idea for people to use artificial intelligence alone for writing articles. Even if you use an AI to generate the bulk of your writing (which I don’t recommend), don’t even think about hitting publish until you’ve carefully read through every word.
AI-generated content isn’t necessarily high quality content.
This should go without saying, but I feel like it needs to be said. You can’t simply trust that any artificial intelligence writing articles actually writes well. While the AI that I’ve tested is pretty impressive, not all of its output is something that I would consider fit for publication.
While the saying is that content is king, I’d amend that to say that high quality content is king. The Internet has enough content. What it needs is high quality content that is actually worth the time to read.
What an article writing AI produces may not be up to the standards of what one would reasonably call “high quality” all the time. Depending on the tool you use and the inputs you feed the AI, you may get results that are great or pretty terrible. It’s important to know the difference and be able to edit accordingly.
Don’t use AI as a crutch to excuse yourself from creating high quality content. Even the best AI assistant needs to be checked by a human before its content is published.
Always review the content that an AI hands you and check it thoroughly for grammatical errors and logical flow. Don’t assume that it’s all peachy just because everything is spelled correctly. Remember, just because it’s the product of a computer doesn’t mean it’s well written.
And if it’s not well written, I don’t care where it came from. It shouldn’t be published.
Artificial intelligence can write articles but isn’t human.
While some AI tools can give a pretty close imitation of human language, the fact is that they can’t think. Sure, they can process data and act on given inputs. But they don’t understand the range of human thought and emotion. Nor can they. Nor, I would argue, should they.
One of the key aspects of human content creation is human emotion and human expression. A computer can do a great job of compiling data and listing facts. It may excel at creating an imitation of human reasoning.
But it’s not really, truly, human. An AI may spit out words describing certain thoughts and feelings, but is it truly thinking and feeling? No. It may even write the words “I” or “me” but a computer doesn’t have a self to write about.
No artificial intelligence tool capable of writing articles is capable of fully grasping the intricacies of human language. These tools are pretty good at predicting the next word in a sequence to construct something close to human-like. However, they can’t truly grasp the nuances and variations in our linguistic expressions. To complicate matters, remember that language varies even among people who speak the same language. Someone from the Midwest says certain things in ways that sound funny to someone from the Southern states – and vice versa. We speak the same language, but there are subtle differences.
But ultimately and most importantly (though I can only speak for myself here), who wants to read content from an AI all the time? I know I don’t. I read from people because I want to hear what they have to say. Personally, I want to read what others are thinking and feeling – not what a computer spat out based on some predetermined parameters.
At the end of the day, all of the best artificial intelligence writing articles can’t replace what really matters in writing: the humanity behind it.
Artificial intelligence can be a tool for writers, but only a tool.
Look, I’m optimistic about the future of AI for writers. I think there are lots of great new tools that will make writers’ lives easier. Jasper has impressed me so far. I’ve used it to brainstorm a few topics I’d like to write about. But despite its marketing claims, I refuse to use it to write full articles. I think that’s something that’s best left to humanity.
Maybe you disagree with me, and you have no problem with artificial intelligence writing articles for your blog or website. That’s fine. But if I can encourage you in one thing, it would be this: Remember not to depend so heavily on AI for your writing that you forget the human element. After all, if our writing loses the human element, is it really worth reading?
If you haven’t had a chance yet to explore this area of AI, maybe look into a tool like Jasper or Jenni. I have a paid membership with Jasper, but I haven’t yet explored Jenni myself. And there are – of course – plenty other tools out there to check out. If you do, though, please remember to use AI in a way that remembers the human element.
If you rely on AI so much that you replace your creativity with a machine, you’re doing it wrong and should be ashamed. This is one of the AI content creation mistakes I think a lot of people make.
The bottom line is this: AI can be a great benefit, and I’m excited to see how it helps me in my own writing. But it can only be just that: a help.