Writing is the skill of creating persuasive words that generate sales. You can use it for various purposes such as websites, blogs, and industry reports. A skill that requires creativity, empathy, and a deep understanding of the target audience.
But with the rise of AI writing tools, some people might wonder: Can AI replace human writers?
The answer is no, it can’t. And here’s why.
AI-generated content and AI tools are amazing, or at least can be when properly utilized. With simple prompts, AI tools are capable of generating high-quality content in a fraction of the time it takes a human writer. The use of AI can also help content writers with brainstorming, research, editing, and optimization. They can even mimic different brand voices and styles.
But AI content writers are not perfect. They are not human beings.
They can’t understand the nuances, human emotions, and context that make content creation so powerful. They can’t create original and unique stories that resonate with readers. They can’t inject humor, personality, and flair into their writing. They lack emotional intelligence and human experience.
That’s where human writers come in. Human writers have something that a large language model can’t replicate: the human touch. They can connect with the audience on an emotional level, using humor, storytelling, and persuasive techniques. They can also adapt to changing situations, feedback, and goals.
Human writers and AI writers are not enemies. They are allies. They can work together to create better content faster and more easily. For example, here are some ways AI power mode helps our users at StoryChief:
- Generate ideas and headlines: AI can help you overcome writer’s block and come up with catchy and relevant titles for your content.
- Write drafts and outlines: AI can help you save time and energy by writing the first version of your content based on your keywords, tone, and goals.
- Edit and optimize your content: AI can help you improve your grammar, spelling, readability, SEO, and conversions by suggesting changes and enhancements.
- Polish and finalize your content: Humans can help you add the finishing touches to your content by adding humor, personality, style, and voice.
AI writing tools are not here to replace human writers. They are here to assist them. By using AI as a tool, not a threat, human writers can leverage their creativity, empathy, and writing skills to create better content that sells.
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Will Google Reject Your Content or E.A.T. it Happily?
Google is simultaneously heavily advertising their own generative text AI, and going to great lengths to discourage overzealous content marketers and SEO agencies from using AI-created programmatic SEO content to game Google’s ranking algorithm. “When it comes to automatically generated content, our guidance has been consistent for years,” Google’s Developer Guidelines pronounces. “Using automation—including AI systems—to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies."
They warn website owners that “using AI programs doesn't give content any special gains. It's just content. If it is useful, helpful, original, and satisfies aspects of E-E-A-T [experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness], it might do well in Search. If it doesn't, it might not."
Here’s what E-E-A-T stands for:
Expertise concerns the knowledge and qualifications of content creators. Qualifications, human experience, and credibility should be showcased. Essential for accurate content, especially in health and finance.
Authoritativeness focuses on content source reputation. Established sources and niche experts are authoritative. Gaining recognition and backlinks builds authority.
Trustworthiness: Reliability and credibility matter. Content should avoid misinformation and cite sources. References enhance trustworthiness.
Google has since added an extra E to their published guidelines: “Experience.” Though many would say this unnecessary addition already falls under the umbrellas of expertise and authority, and ruinously turns the great snappy acronym EAT into the clunky initialism E.E.A.T.
Toning Down the Turing Test Hype in Human-Like AI
Ever since ChatGPT passed the Turing Test in 2023, much has been made of the AI’s creative power and ability to “write like a human.” Passing the Turing Test, which involves a human evaluator being unable to distinguish between a machine and a human based on their responses, is often considered a significant milestone in the development of artificial intelligence.
However, it is important to recognize that a generative text AI passing the Turing Test does not guarantee it is a high-quality AI, let alone a sophisticated one. Here are a few reasons why:
- Surface-level responses: Passing the Turing Test relies on the AI's ability to generate human-like responses. While this demonstrates a level of linguistic proficiency, it doesn't necessarily indicate deeper understanding or intelligence. AI programs can sometimes provide convincing responses without truly comprehending the meaning or context of the conversation.
- Lack of domain knowledge: AI systems may excel at mimicking human conversation, but they often lack deep domain-specific knowledge. They may struggle to provide accurate and insightful responses in specialized fields such as medicine, law, or advanced scientific research. High-quality AI should possess both general conversational skills and domain expertise.
- Limited creativity: The Turing Test focuses primarily on the ability to generate coherent and contextually appropriate responses. However, creativity and originality are crucial aspects of human intelligence that are not adequately captured by the test. High-quality AI should be capable of generating novel ideas, contributing to innovation, and critical thinking outside the box.
- Ethical considerations: From considering human mental health to respecting intellectual property, it is incredibly difficult to create an AI that is useful at generating creative writing, passes the Turing test, and has effective ethical guardrails to guide its use. The very nature of being able to respond in natural human language makes it more vulnerable to being prompted in ways that bypass restrictions that even the most benevolent of AI creators might have put in place.
Current AI can be described as a “Chinese Room,” a thought experiment that explains how an intelligence can appear to parse and respond in a foreign language near-perfectly, despite lacking any understanding of the actual content they are translating and responding in.
It is not the highest of standards to say that AI-assisted generative tools can reliably produce content that “sound” like a human. The average human is not an amazing communicator—even if they talk, text, and blog a lot. And despite ChatGPT’s PR, hoping to appear the first AI to accomplish this, other AI programs have been able to technically qualify as meeting the narrow definition of “passing the Turing Test” since the early 2000s.
Why You Want a Professional Writer—When Just OK isn’t Good Enough
Most children educated in either the Eastern or Western world learn to write creative nonfiction in school, making the ability to write an essay a skill nearly everyone possesses to some degree. It isn’t magic or rocket science.
However, there’s a reason why even before the days of ChatGPT prompts website creators outsourced even the most general and simple of content to professional writers. One wants their website to shine as a sleek and inviting little corner of the web, not a solid B+ equivalent of an essay.
Most importantly, a human can write original content that contains a genuine human voice. Although hiring a real professional writer isn’t free, AI-generated text, even at its best, can lack unique authenticity.
3 Tips for Avoiding the Common Pitfalls of AI-use in Content Marketing
1. Don't Rely Blindly on AI Writing Tools
AI writing tools are not infallible. The limitations of AI is that they may occasionally generate inaccurate, irrelevant, or even plagiarized content. Furthermore, they may miss the nuances, context, or tone necessary for your audience and purpose.
Therefore, it's essential to review, edit, and proofread any content generated by these tools before publishing it to ensure it’s good writing. Additionally, employing plagiarism checkers like Copyscape or Quetext will help ensure the originality of your work.
2. Avoid Low-Quality or Spammy Content
The temptation to create low-quality or spam-filled content can be strong when using AI writing tools. However, succumbing to this temptation can severely harm your reputation, credibility, and SEO rankings.
Search engines like Google constantly refine their algorithms to detect and penalize such content. To safeguard your online presence, always prioritize crafting high-quality and valuable content that meets the needs and expectations of your readers.
3. Preserve Creativity and a Unique Voice
Remember, AI writing tools are designed to assist, not replace, the creative writing process. Most lack the ability to capture your unique personality, brand voice, writing style, or perspective. They cannot conjure up original stories, insights, or opinions that strongly resonate with your audience.
To truly stand out in the crowd, infusing your content with your creativity and voice is essential. Let these tools be a guiding hand, but let your individuality shine through in your writing.
But aren’t we supposed to be Writing for SEO and Ranking, and doesn’t AI do that Best?
It is true that you can use StoryChief’s AI Power Mode to create nearly flawless text that is instantly optimized to tick all the boxes to appear super sexy to Google’s and other search engines’ ranking algorithms. However, it is important to remember you’re not the only one who can do that.
When you Google “AI-Assisted Writing” or any similar query about SEO and content marketing, you will find an unsettling mimicry across countless different websites all vying for the most perfectly optimized content, paradoxically undone by their success.
The Perfect SEO Paradox
The irony is reminiscent of one particular comic by the great Gary Larson, wherein a couple of wolves pop off their sheep costumes to bemoan the fact that it looks like everyone around them is also just a wolf perfectly disguised as a sheep.
Generative AI can incorporate SEO keywords and be prompted to still produce coherent enough text (perhaps even informing enough text), and still be essentially indistinguishable from content written by a human.
HOWEVER, this means that at the most competitive end of high-value topics, SEO-oriented generative text AI will have countless more inhuman doppelgangers than articles on more niche topics.
The Mistake of Writing for AI instead of Writing with AI
Blogspam never went away, it just got a lot creepier and harder to discern at a glance. Lest you fear for the future of our beloved shared internet, though, the broader public is catching on, and it is providing diminishing returns for those who engage in such practices as a main content marketing or SEO strategy.
This is for two main reasons:
- The first, as previously mentioned, is that if anyone can do it, lots of people can do it, and the more people who do it the less effective it becomes.
- The second is that the programmers behind Google, Bing and other major search engine algorithms are not stupid, nor does an algorithm remain unchained for any reliable length of time
There were days when one could make their website skyrocket to the top of Google’s ranking with the most minimal of publicly viewable content on their website with any number of simple grey hat tricks.
For example, one could create a paragraph of text that included high-value keywords that were a few hundred words, and copy and paste it over and over on pages of their website; then, unlike the text they wanted to able to be publicly viewed, their SEO spam text would be colored the same as background text.
To employ such a SEO strategy was as genius as it was stupid—of course, Google would crack down and not only not continue to allow such tricks to boost their rating, they’d ensure they were actively deranked.
“Content is king,” is a marketing mantra that has been used to remind website owners that readers come to your website for the value you add, and good SEO practices could help make your content stand out. This sentiment, among many, has devolved to mean that one just needs to have content, and that the content with the best SEO is king.
But if everyone is pretending to be a king, or a sheep, is anyone?
As this exploration reveals, human creativity still reigns supreme when it comes to great writing. Yet AI has an undeniable role to play in supercharging production. The future of content lies in marrying imaginative people and efficient algorithms into a dream team.
So rather than worry about the rise of robot authors, embrace the AI shift. Let tools take care of the tedious tasks like research and drafting. Empower your content team to focus on high-level strategy and injecting personality. Blend the computational power of AI with the spark of human originality.
If this vision sounds exciting, see it in action for yourself. Sign up through Storychief for a 7-day free trial now. Let AI write 5X more quality website copy, blog posts and social media content without losing uniqueness.
Experience how AI can enhance (not replace) human writing and unleash your team’s creativity. Start optimizing content workflows today!
