Why ChatGPT is the Wrong Route for Content Creation

So, I admit, I gave in and tried out ChatGPT the other night out of curiosity. After reading all the buzz and how marketers and content creators were rushing to the platform to create content galore, I was interested to see how it worked both from a speed and quality of content standpoint.

I was amazed and terrified, but saw a massive opportunity.

Amazed by the speed, terrified by the potential, and the massive opportunity wasn’t to run at it with all my needs and ideas, but to run as far away from it as possible.

Now, while there are many use cases where this powerful tool is a good idea. Anything that’s mundane, such as data entry or in the case of chatbots that can support your customer service initiatives, it’s a great time saver.

For those who want to use it to create blogs, articles, and insightful content, I say go for it if that’s your cup of tea. There are some key reasons that you should be aware of that should steer you clear of using this as your digital crutch for content.

The Loss Of Human Emotion

A no brainer, right? How can a machine produce human emotion and why is human emotion so important to content creation in the first place? Even something as simple as a blog post should include some element of emotion to motivate the reader or move them to some sort of action.

When we produce content, we should be bringing in these emotional elements to add value and perspective to our viewpoint. Even super dry concepts can be made interesting and captivating with the right call to action or emotional tie to acting/not acting on the content.

The De-Personalization Effect

Honestly, I encourage you to have Chat GPT write an article or blog on a topic you’re passionate about. A topic that you love talking with people about and sharing your insights.

I did and it was painful.

It’s easy to get swept up in the sexiness of a super-fast piece of content that has some smart points to it, but when you see the finished product and think to yourself “Does this sound like me?” unless you’ve been previously writing like a machine (which I hope you haven’t) the answer should be an absolute “no.”

The Digital Echo Chamber

Yes, I get that the whole point of AI and machine learning is to evolve and fine tune over time, but how long will that take and how many of your peers and competitors are going to the Chat GPT well right now before it fine tunes too much?

Even tweaks in the ask produces quite similar content on back end. If you think about your area of expertise and/or industry that you’re creating content in, you can do a quick scan of headlines, tags, and titles and find some very similar concepts and discussions. If 10 of your peers all go to Chat GPT with similar ideas, you should expect that all 11 of you are going to have blogs/articles that aren’t going to sound much different from each other.

Not only does that run the risk of plagiarism in some fashion, it also makes the content boring and way too similar.

Creating More Work?

In my experimentation with ChatGPT, the speed was definitely impressive. However, when reading the output, there was a massive gap in length, quality of content, and compelling points. Not only did I have to re-read through it, but I wound up spending more time adding in content, providing a better flow, and bringing forth some personality.

This took quite a bit more time because some of the content adjustments were like fitting an oval peg into a round hole. I know it’s supposed to be a square peg, but I chose oval because while it wasn’t that far off from what it should be, it still didn’t fit.

Silencing the Storytelling

When I’m creating content or presentations, or coaching others to do the same, the storytelling aspect is non-negotiable. Personal experience, stories, anecdotes, or analogies create compelling content that sticks with its readers or listeners. Think about putting your name on an article penned by Chat GPT, that machine has not seen what you’ve seen, felt what you’ve felt, or experienced what you have that helps create this content.

The ability for the content to resonate with audiences hits a digital wall due to the removal of what we’ll call a “message heartbeat.” This heartbeat is what makes excellent articles and presentations what they should be, emotional connectors. They allow your audience, whether through written or spoken content, to feel heard and seen because of the assimilation that they may have to your personal story.

This, to me, is the dealbreaker.

As I have been coaching executives, celebrities, and aspiring speakers on creating and crafting their own messages, this to me is where some can separate themselves. This is a trend that I fully believe you should retreat to an old school methodology (and by old school, I mean a few months ago) where ideas were generated, written, invested in, and crafted…..by you.

 So, all in all, Chat GPT isn’t the end of the world (I hope) but it surely isn’t for those that want to convey the best value to their followers, colleagues, or potential clients.

It’s up to you to decide what type of branding you want your content to have: callous or curated?

To learn more about my new speaker coaching program to help craft your presentation, pitch, or storytelling, contact me at rich@richbracken.com to schedule a discovery call.