AI-generated content is becoming more popular, but many people wonder how to use it and whether it really sounds authentic.
AI is growing rapidly in technology sectors, including supply chains, the food industry, chatbots, and content and image generation use cases. AI-generated imagery was in the news when critics claimed that AI art systems were stealing people's intellectual property with large-scale models such as OpenAI's Dall-E.
OpenAI introduced a similar AI program for content known as ChatGPT. This bot is used for more general purposes, providing open prompts for users to ask questions, give instructions, or solicit opinions. The bot answers both broad and specific questions. The system generated answers that professors and other educators said were broad enough to earn them enough credit. However, after further review, some sources, such as Stack Overflow for programmers and developers, said the information was incorrect and temporarily banned answers using the system. There are no limitations on the answers ChatGPT can provide, so users could also search for how to make an explosive or shoplift.
Companies are turning to AI tools to help with content creation and copywriting. The same question is being asked whether AI will replace content writers. While AI-generated content is not suitable for all copywriting, there are some great ways to use these tools.
What is AI-generated content?
AI-generated content involves machine-created copy for blogs, marketing materials, articles, product descriptions, etc. AI content creators generate content based on human inputs such as keywords, phrases, topics, and other information.
AI-generated content helps speed up the writing process, and businesses are starting to take notice. Marketers might consider using AI-generated content to automate the sometimes time-consuming and costly content marketing process.
How does AI-generated content work?
To create content, users input the required text format, topic, and keywords. AI tools then search the internet and assemble copy that fits the requested format. Some tools rewrite and add information to a company's existing content based on web searches and editing tools. These tools can take this existing content and re-edit it for other communication formats, such as converting a blog post into a social media post or an email draft.
Some content generators are free to use, but others will charge you for more in-depth content.
What are the benefits of AI-generated content?
AI-generated content is valuable in many ways. Here are some of its benefits:
Efficiency and scalability
AI can create content much faster than humans. This is probably its biggest advantage. AI tools can create articles in minutes. It would take a human writer much longer to do all the research and write an article.
Multiplying the processing speed with the number of articles, AI tools can generate huge amounts of content.
AI can also help in localizing languages in different geographical areas and personalize content for different sites and social media.
Cost-effectiveness
Hiring a quality content writer will usually cost hundreds of dollars per project. The cost will vary depending on the length of the articles, the number of articles, and the technical knowledge required. And if the result is high-quality, well-researched content, this will be money well spent.
Some AI writing tools are free, while others require a monthly subscription fee, typically around $100 for tens of thousands of words.
With these considerations in mind, AI-generated content may be better suited for simpler pieces of content rather than articles that require expertise or authority.
Improved SEO
An AI content generator scrolls through thousands of online documents to absorb information. The generator views all these documents to select keywords that will improve search engine optimization (SEO). The AI tool can suggest keywords to content writers. Using these keyword suggestions throughout your articles will help your content rank higher in search engines, provided it follows credibility guidelines and is written by a human.
Overcoming Writer's Block
Writer’s block is a common obstacle for many people. Writers can struggle to create credible content on a subject they don’t know much about.
To overcome this hurdle, AI tools create detailed outlines and talking points to help writers decide what to include in their articles. These suggestions from AI tools can help users overcome writer's block and spark the ideas they need to get started.
What are the drawbacks of AI-generated content?
There are a few things to consider when it comes to using AI-generated content: Some content is better written by a human writer Here are some drawbacks to AI-generated content:
Quality concerns and potential plagiarism
AI relies on data and algorithms for content, and while AI tools can cover the black and white areas of a topic, the grey areas are more subjective and may lose their intended tone.
Search engines may also flag content for being similar to publicly available material because the AI pulls information from the same sources. AI tools stitch and paraphrase content from different sites. Without adding a proper flow, this process goes against Google's “Content stitching and combining” guidelines. Content needs to be reliable and useful, which is hard to achieve when stitching together information from different sites without proper human review.
Algorithms Devalue Content
Google released its informative content update in August 2022 to punish content created with the intent of ranking high in search engine results.
In March 2024, Google again released an update that improves parts of its content ranking system, this time to help users determine if a web page is not useful, has a poor user experience, or seems to prioritize keywords over being useful to readers.
Lack of creativity and personalization
Creative content makes articles more engaging, people tend to share articles they connect with, but AI doesn't have the emotional intelligence to craft a story, and its focus is generally on adding facts to an outline.
AI creates wording based on existing web content and data. The technology cannot understand the user intent of a query and still lacks common sense of human behavior.
Human editing still needed
Humans still need to read AI-generated content, and while AI may save time, humans still need to review the articles for quality.
The AI tool combines information from multiple websites into one, which can lead to confusion that needs to be fixed, such as when a product description includes texture and color, usually because the AI tool doesn't understand the meaning of adjectives.
Can't generate new ideas
AI tools use existing data for content and are unable to come up with fresh ideas: AI tools have a hard time coming up with new content that covers the latest trending ideas and topics.
How to use AI-generated content
AI-generated content is best used as a writing assistant rather than relying entirely on the technology. Here are some ways you can use AI tools to assist with your content:
- the study. For writers who are having trouble organizing their topics or coming up with ideas, AI-generated content can help them get started. Some tools can provide ideas for what to include within a broader topic, helping to narrow the research process.
- Proofread your current material. To ensure that their drafted articles are optimized, writers can use AI tools to grade them, which can also highlight keywords and phrases that should be used. AI tools can also help check grammar and correct spelling mistakes.
- Write short content. AI tools are ideal for reducing the boredom of repetitive tasks, as they can generate a lot of content in a short amount of time. Some communications require an emotional dimension, but short descriptions don't. Product descriptions, meta tags, ad copy, and social media posts are some examples of short pieces of text that are suitable for a content generator.
- Translate languages. To create written materials that appeal to any audience, AI generators can help translate content into different languages.
- Create a template. AI tools can help with creating email and other templates. Some AI tools provide a wide variety of pre-made templates for users to plug in their customized information.
Examples of AI-generated content
There are many AI content generators available, here is an example of how content generation works using a program called CopyAI.
- Select your writing style from the left side.
- Answer topic.
- Add the main points.
- Select a tone.
A few options for text will pop up: Below is the AI-generated content from the information you entered: This is the first option, which aims to mimic the information in this article.
AI is an amazing technology that has the potential to change our world and the way we live in it. But like any new technology, AI-generated content has pros and cons, both of which businesses need to be aware of before deciding whether to use AI.
First, the pros:
1) AI-generated content enables businesses to produce more content with fewer resources, saving time and money.
2) It allows businesses to create highly personalized content for each customer, resulting in happier customers.
3) AI-generated content helps you avoid costly lawsuits and bad publicity if something goes wrong in your business operations (for example, if you send out an email with incorrect information) because it ensures that all information is correct.
Now, let's talk about some of the drawbacks:
1) AI-generated content can sound unnatural (like it was written by a robot) and can make customers feel uncomfortable and distrust your business. There's no point in trying to make sure everything is right if the end result sounds robotic.
2) If someone realizes they have been reading AI-generated content.
Much of the information in this TechTarget article is outlined in the AI-generated content above. However, the AI content isn't particularly comprehensive or conversational, even when it chooses a friendly tone. This TechTarget article goes into more detail and provides examples for illustration. The AI-generated content seems more like an outline and needs additional information to flow like a human-written article.
How to detect AI-generated content
An even bigger concern with AI-generated content is that students will use these tools to cheat. Several professors and teachers have said that ChatGPT's AI-generated content has produced persuasive essays.
To distinguish between human-written and AI-written text, OpenAI released a new AI text classifier on January 31, 2023. However, the company withdrew this text classifier in July 2023 due to low accuracy. There are other online tools that classify and detect whether AI-generated content is likely to have been written by a human or an AI. These resources include Originality.ai, Writing.com, and Copyleaks.
OpenAI is also working on creating watermarks to instantly identify long stretches of AI-generated text.
In addition to inspecting your text with an online AI content detector, here are some telltale signs that your content is AI-generated:
- Fewer typos. Human writing often contains typos and slang. AI-generated content is less likely to have grammatical mistakes, spelling errors, and other typos.
- Excessive use of “the.” AI-generated content is based on predictive language that determines which word should follow next, so words like “the,” “it,” and “is” are usually used in place of less common terms.
- There is no source cited. AI-generated texts often present facts and do not cite sources.
- Shorter sentences. Sentence length in AI content is usually shorter as it attempts to mimic human writing, but it often appears choppy.
- Repetition of words or phrases. If certain words or phrases are used frequently, it could be a sign of AI-generated content as they are trying to fill the space with related keywords.
- Lack of analysis. AI can collect data but it can't analyze it, so if an article feels like it's full of facts without any insights, it's likely generated by AI.
Editor's note: This article was updated in July 2024 to improve reader experience.
Amanda Hetler is a senior editor and writer at WhatIs, writing technology commentary articles and collaborating with freelancers.
