Corporate writing auto-generated by artificial intelligence is now decidedly ‘a thing,’ according to a new study.
Specifically, 12% of companies surveyed are using AI in some way to write content, according to SEMrush, the company that conducted the study.
Human writers are obviously still the producers of choice — by a wide margin.
But SEMrush researchers nevertheless found 49% of businesses are having trouble finding humans who can write knowledgeably and insightfully on topics that are crucial to their markets.
In other AI-generated writing news:
*In-Depth Guide: AdZis: AI writer AdZis focuses on an extremely specific task for its users: Auto-creating a catalog’s worth of product descriptions in just a few minutes.
This guide offers an in-depth look at how the AI software works.
Key take-aways:
~While product descriptions can be auto-created in minutes, each description will most likely need editing and refinement by a human writer
~AdZis integrates with a number of ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, Squarespace, OpenCart and Magneto
~AdZis can ingest an entire catalog of product descriptions and then rewrite those descriptions in minutes
~AdZis can offer-up topics for your store blog by auto-analyzing the line of merchandise your online store is selling
~Pricing starts for an extremely limited use of AdZis at $9/year
You can also check-out critical takes on AdZis — currently, only a handful are available — from actual users on these pages on G2Crowd and Capeterra.
*Many PR Pros Still Naive About AI: A new study from a UK-based public relations trade group finds that 43% of workers in public relations have limited knowledge of AI.
They also lack confidence using the tech.
Dubbed the “AI and Big Data Readiness Report,” the study — released by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations — also finds that only 8% of PR pros surveyed “feel very comfortable” using AI.
Says Anne Gregory, co-author of the study: “Two years ago, when we produced the “AI and the Professions” report, we said that public relations was in danger of sleepwalking into the technological future.
“Unfortunately, nothing has really changed.
“We need to get a strategic grip and determine for ourselves what our enhanced role and contribution can be in the organizations we serve.
“Otherwise, others will make the decision for us — and it won’t be in our favor.”
Adds Andrew Bruce Smith, a CIPR spokesperson: “There is clearly a mix of optimism and fear in the PR industry with regard to AI.
“Excitement at the potential and possibilities.
“And concern that the role of the practitioner will be eroded away.”
*AI and Marketing: A Primer: PR pro Kris Ruby offers an extremely in-depth guide with this piece on how to enhance an organization’s marketing and PR with artificial intelligence.
Key takeaways from Ruby’s perspective on AI include:
~Despite the prowess of AI writing products that use GPT-3 as their writing engine, human curation is generally still required of this genre of automated writing
~One of the best uses of auto-writers is to create more in-depth writing for marketing and promotion — not simply torrents upon torrents of shorter pieces
~AI writing produced to score higher on search engine returns runs the same risk of being penalized by the search engines as SEO-optimized copy produced by flesh-and-blood writers
*Salesforce Poised to Offer Short and Long-form AI Writing: Business consulting firm Forrester says Salesforce’s coming acquisition of AI writing pioneer Narrative Science will enable the sales behemoth to offer both short and long-form AI-generated writing.
That dual capability will first pop-up in Tableau — business intelligence software that’s offered in the Salesforce software suite — according to Boris Evelson, a principal analyst at Forrester.
Observes Evelson: “Now, Tableau customers will be able to take advantage of both short-form and long-form NLG (natural language generation, or AI-generated writing), depending on their use case.”
For firms uninterested in using Tableau for business intelligence, there are no worries.
Observes Evelson: “Forrester sees an increasing number of enterprises using multiple BI (business intelligence) platforms — but standardizing on a single long-form NLG solution.
“Other known vendors in the space include Arria NLG, Automated Insights, AX Semantics, and Yseop.”
(For an in-depth look at the growing trend in auto-generated company reports, check out, “Company Reports That Write Themselves,” by Joe Dysart.)
*Major Super-Computer Writing Engine Now Available to All: OpenAI — makers of the GPT-3 writing engine — which first stunned many with its writing prowess in 2020 — is now accessible to anyone who wants to build applications on its technology.
During the past year, scores of entrepreneurs have built writing software interfaces for GPT-3.
Many of those are being used to auto-write short emails, ad slogans, marketing blurbs and the like.
Previously, access to GPT-3 was ‘by-invitation-only.’
But that’s all changed: Now, anyone can play with GPT-3.
That free access is expected to trigger an onslaught of new apps that use GPT-3 as their writing engine.
Observes Steven Zeitchik, a writer for The Washington Post: It’s “a big deal.
“Many emails or essays could soon — potentially — be push-button affairs.”
(For an in-depth look at GPT-3, check out: “GPT-3 and AI Writing: Stunning, if Imperfect,” by Joe Dysart.)
*Grammarly Snares Staggering $200 Million in New Funding: Grammarly has firmly established itself as one of the world’s AI writing assistants to beat with its latest infusion of new cash — a cool $200 million.
The tool, which is used to check human-produced writing for grammar, spelling, word choice, tone and similar attributes has taken the world by storm.
Observes Aisha Malik, a writer for TechCrunch: “Today, Grammarly works across more than 500,000 applications and Web sites, including email clients, enterprise software and word processors.”
*Meet My New AI Lawyer: Google: Silicon Valley titan Google is looking to partner with legal tech companies interested in bringing its ‘Contract DocAI’ software on board.
Essentially, Contract DocAI is designed to automatically find, extract and present critical data to help create legal documents.
But instead of selling directly to lawyers and law firms, Google plans to license its software to already established legal tech vendors.
Observes Artificial Lawyer: “Google sees this as an enterprise play, where they will work with partners — such as Ironclad, and with others to be announced — rather than offer their services directly to the end customers.”
*Anyword Snares $21 Million: While a new AI writing tool appears to pop-up every few weeks, one way to get a bead on those with the greatest prospects is tried-and-true: Follow the money.
Towards that end: AI writing tool Anyword has secured $21 million in new funding — a tidy sum in anyone’s world.
Anyword differs from AI Assistants like Grammarly — which uses AI to edit and enhance human-produced copy — in that it can auto-produce short marketing copy with just a few phrases of input.
Anyword’s specific claim-to-fame: Offering marketers AI-driven predictive metrics and insights, which they can use to forge marketing copy that is custom-tailored for specific audiences.
*AI Big Picture: Could AI Turn On Us?: Serious thinkers pondering a world increasingly run by artificial intelligence believe it’s quite possible humans could ultimately become subservient to AI — or worse.
Philosopher Nick Bostrom, for example — who heads the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford — has been decrying AI’s coming threat for years now.
In a phrase: Humans trying to build AI are “like children playing with a bomb,” Bostrom says.
Observes Steven Poole, a writer for The Guardian: Bostrom’s 2014 book “Superintelligence” is seminal.
“A real AI, it suggests, might secretly manufacture nerve gas or nanobots to destroy its inferior, meat-based makers.
“Or, it might just keep us in a planetary zoo while it gets on with whatever its real business is.”
But not all think AI world dominance is a bad thing.
Observes Poole: “In “Novacene,” the maverick scientist and Gaia theorist James Lovelock argues that humans should simply be joyful if we can usher in intelligent machines as the logical next stage of evolution — and then bow out gracefully once we have rendered ourselves obsolete.”
Gulp.
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–Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.