Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic over the past year, with new programs such as ChatGPT and Adobe Firefly hitting the market.
The use of AI as a creative tool has received both praise and much scorn. Businesses and organizations alike are salivating over what it can do for them, but creators insist it's just a roundabout way of cutting themselves out of the process entirely. Several lawsuits are pending as a form of copyright infringement due to the way these generators operate.
So far, AI has proven to be a useful tool for Bond in content creation. However, it is important to remember that it is not reliable. Here, we take a look at what AI generators do well when it comes to content creation, and what you should avoid.
Social media
One could argue that social media's influence is waning due to waning interest and questionable business practices. Nevertheless, it remains an important way to get your content to the right audience, but it can be time-consuming. Is AI useful?
As with most of these questions, the answer is both yes and no. I typed the prompt into ChatGPT: “Generate 15 tweets based on Bond NGO's latest events, blogs, and resources.” Not only did these tweets not include any of our latest events, blogs, or resources, one of the tweets promoted a conference that hadn't been held in three years, and we asked them to include a link. When I asked for it, it simply contained a box that looked like this: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiXWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJvbmQub3JnLnVrL25ld3MvMjAyNC8wNS91c2luZy1haS1mb3ItY29udGVudC1jcmVhdGlvbi1nYW1lLWNoYW5nZXItb3Itb3Zlcmh5cGVkL9IBAA?oc=5 All in the same tweet.
The most unacceptable thing is that every tweet contains an exclamation point. This is something that the style guide explicitly prohibits (unless, of course, it's mentioned in the quote).
However, when I asked the same program to rewrite their tweets to increase engagement and get them seen by a wider audience, it worked, driving more traffic to the desired page compared to previous attempts. Did.
Linkedin also added an “AI-powered rewrite” feature to its platform. I still tend to use my own text, but it's nice to have another option, especially on days when my brain isn't working or if I've shared the same content over and over again.
AI generators help with optimal publishing times, latest algorithm changes, and accurate hashtags. It's worth playing with, but don't rely on it for all your social features.
Images and icons
Regarding images, the issue of using AI is particularly troubling in the international and humanitarian sectors.
The People in the Pictures Working Group provides much-needed insight into the ethical dilemmas surrounding images, especially given the field's questionable history of how people in need of humanitarian assistance are portrayed in content. provided insight and guidance.
Also note that even if you want to create a photorealistic image, it is still not truly realistic. Humans are good at finding flaws in things that don't look right. Moral issues aside, it's best to avoid this type of image, since “almost real-looking” means not looking real.
However, if AI is used for descriptive purposes, it can be useful. Most designer software such as Adobe and Canva now have AI features that can help you plan, create holder images, and simple icons and banners.
Nevertheless, my advice is to use a designer for larger pieces. Because you get exactly what you want and it's branded. Guaranteed to be better than anything the AI can come up with.
Creation of blogs and other written content
As far as I know, I have yet to receive a blog post written by an AI. There's always something that needs to be organized. After all, spelling and grammatical errors are human errors.
What makes our blog great is the passion and knowledge of our authors. Although it covers some dry topics, the content is enlivened by relevant lived experience. I love receiving blogs on subjects that I don't fully understand and it makes me want to know more about the subject.
This cannot be achieved with AI-generated content. Yes, there are no spelling mistakes, but you also don't get the lived experience.
As an experiment, we asked a UK-based international development and humanitarian INGO to write a 700-word blog about the benefits of locally-led development from a cost-effectiveness perspective and its benefits to local communities. entered into ChatGPT.
The results are quite impressive (you can see for yourself here). This captures our ideology about locally-led development very well, and its arguments in favor are fairly accurate.
Where it falls apart is its boring structure, lack of practical examples, and ignorance of lived experience. It's certainly passable, and it would have been interesting, if a little disingenuous, to put it up to see if anyone would notice. But I guess some people think that way, because it doesn't resemble the work of any of the authors I've edited over the years at Bond. It is a statement of fact without personality.
Do I need to create content this way? But AI can also be used in other ways.
As with social media, you can get suggestions for structure, spell checking (make sure to differentiate between American and British English) topic suggestions, sentence structure, and many other helpful prompts.
When it comes to using AI for your organization's content, my colleague Jessica came to the same conclusion when she researched the use of AI in media work. Yes, it can be helpful, but it's not reliable. Your best bet is still to trust your creative team.
But that doesn't mean you can't do theater. However, its features are a little over-exaggerated.
