While fewer AI writing CEOs are twisting themselves into pretzels attempting to claim that automated writing tools are simply happy assistants that wouldn’t dream of stealing a writing job, ChatGPT-maker’s CEO Sam Altman nevertheless came-out with a stunner in Q1, 2024.
AI, Altman says, is on track to usurp 95% of marketing work — most of which hinges on writing.
That remarkable candor pretty much set the tone for Q1 2024, during which writers saw automation picking-off good paying writing jobs faster than they could say ‘Take me to your AI overlord.’
Journalists, for example, learned that five finalists for this year’s Pulitzer leaned on AI to help get them there.
And they also saw that a growing number of news sites are bypassing reporters completely and using AI to rewrite press releases as ‘news.’
Meanwhile, new AI chatbots are being used to convert tech support resolutions into knowledge-base articles — work that used to go to human writers.
And yet another, new AI-writer-on-steroids tool was released in Q1 that not only automates writing — it also ensures that the writing it creates matches your audience psychographics, delivering ‘on-brand, human-sounding copy in seconds.’
Granted, like it or not, writers paying attention are now well aware that when it comes to all things writing, the future belongs to silicon.
But even so, who knew the future would pull-up with an ear-to-ear grin so soon?
In any event, here are details from Q1 chronicling the ever-more formidable rise-of-the-machines:
*ChatGPT CEO: AI Will Usurp 95% of Marketing Work: In a stunning moment of candor, ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman has stated that AI will usurp 95% of the marketing work currently performed by agencies, strategists and creatives.
Altman’s prediction can be found in a new book — offered by subscription — “Our AI Journey,” by Adam Brotman and Andy Sack.
Observes Mike Kaput, chief content officer, Marketing AI Institute, in reaction to Altman’s reported prediction: “To say it blew us away is an understatement.”
Altman’s exact words, according to Brotman and Sack, were: “95% of what marketers use agencies, strategists, and creative professionals for today will easily, nearly instantly and at almost no cost be handled by the AI.
“And the AI will likely be able to test the creative against real or synthetic customer focus groups for predicting results and optimizing.
“Again — all free, instant and nearly perfect. Images, videos, campaign ideas? No problem.”
For more on Altman’s revelation, check out this riveting article by Kaput.
Keep on rockin’ in the free world.
*The Robots Among Us: Is AI Ghostwriting Its Way to a Pulitzer?: Five finalists for 2024’s Pulitzer Prize for Journalism had a little help from a friend — AI.
Observes writer Alex Perry: “It’s the first time the awards — which received around 1,200 submissions this year — required entrants to disclose AI usage.
“The Pulitzer Board only added this requirement to the journalism category.”
*AI Rewrites Press Releases, Calls It News: A growing number of news sites have decided to bypass reporters completely and simply go live with whatever they happen to find in a press release — courtesy of an AI-rewrite.
Writer Bron Maher reports that the tool they’re using is Gutenbot, by Reach.
Granted, editors at the news outlets using the AI are supposedly tasked to double-check the press release rewrites to ensure the data and claims spewed in the press release are faithfully re-spewed in the AI rewrite.
But apparently, there are no links to the original source material — agency written press releases that are often riddled with euphemisms, unfounded, blue-sky promises and similar unbridled marketing-speak.
Instead, the AI-regurgitated press release receives the tarnished imprimatur of the publishing news outlet — which packages the piece as hard news.
*The Chatbot Chronicles: New Tool Auto-Generates Write-Ups on Tech Support Incidents: In another sign of how deeply AI’s tentacles are reaching into writing jobs once performed by humans, a new tool has emerged that auto-writes articles based on tech support incidents.
Dubbed ‘AI Hub,’ the software “automatically turns incident response conversations between an enterprise’s IT support staff and employees or customers into knowledge base entries,” according to writer Carl Franzen.
Subsequently, customers experiencing similar support challenges can access the insights embedded in that data either as a full-fledged article — or via a Q&A using an AI support chatbot.
*SparkyAI: Outsource Your Marketing to An Algorithm, Impress Your Robot Boss!: Marketers looking for an AI content generator that was trained especially for the industry and includes enhanced tools like audience psychographics may want to take a look at SparkyAI.
Sparky’s promise: Just feed your customer personas, products and campaign objectives into the Brain Bank and SparkyAI’s advanced algorithm will deliver on-brand, human-sounding copy in seconds.
Bonus: Each output can be customized across all digital channels with a single click.
*AI-Generated College Essays: Recipe for a Brainless Generation?: Students hoping to take a free ride on AI writing tools throughout their educational careers are headed for intellectually diminished lives, according to two university professors.
The reason: Without proficiency in original writing, most students will never learn how to think more clearly, more precisely or more deeply.
“In writing courses, students can begin to see the critical variety and power of one of our best technologies: The human act of writing, a system of finite resources but infinite combinations.
“They learn to think, synthesize, judge the credibility of sources and information and interact with an audience — none of which can be done by AI,” observe university professors Joel Heng Hartse and Taylor Morphett.
*Google Bets You’ll Ditch ChatGPT Plus for Gemini Advanced: Google has come out with a serious commercial competitor to ChatGPT, dubbed ‘Gemini Advanced.’
Available for $19.99/month — after an initial free, 2-month trial — the AI-writer-and-more “not only allows you to have longer, more detailed conversations — it also better understands the context from your previous prompts,” according to Sissie Hsiao, a vice president at Google.
For writers and content creators, Gemini Advanced can also “go from idea-to-creation by generating fresh content, analyzing recent trends and brainstorming improved ways to grow their audiences,” Hsiao adds.
Although the jury’s still out on a head-to-head comparison between Gemini Advanced and ChatGPT Plus, this is great news for writers.
Stiff competition amidst tech titans is one of the best guarantees for ever-more sophisticated AI writing tools.
*ChatGPT Finds a New Voice — Its Own: You’ve got to hand it to ChatGPT-maker OpenAI: They keep dishing-out the upgrades with remarkable speed.
This time around, they have a new feature that enables you to hear ChatGPT’s responses read aloud.
Coupled with an add-on that already enables you to speak your inputs into ChatGPT, the AI tool can essentially be used hands-free now — and, if necessary, eyes-free.
*Open-Sourcing AI’s Future: Eyeing the astounding success of OpenAI — ChatGPT’s maker — a number of AI heavy hitters and start-ups are challenging ChatGPT by open-sourcing their AI code.
Many firms and researchers have been open-sourcing — or giving away the code to their apps for free — for decades now.
Observes writer Belle Lin: “Open-source software firms have traditionally made money by charging for services that make their technologies easier for businesses to use, said Joseph Jacks, founder of OSS Capital, a venture-capital firm that funds open-source startups.
“Open-source AI companies say they also can turn a profit by selling business-grade services and applications on top of their open models.”
Ironically, OpenAI was founded as an open-source start-up — only to change its mission later to a proprietary, for-profit company.
Ergo, its name, OpenAI.
*AI Big Picture: ChatGPT, Find Me a Wife: From the Department of Love, AI Style: A Russian man has used AI writing to whisper sweet nothings to 5,000+ potential lovers — and find himself a bride.
Observes Alexander Zhadan: “I proposed to a girl with whom ChatGPT had been communicating for me for a year.
“To do this, the neural network re-communicated with 5,239 other girls — whom it eliminated as unnecessary and left only one.”
Zhadan also credits ChatGPT for engaging in small talk, planning dates and ultimately assisting him in proposing to his fiancée, according to writer Pranav Dixit.
No word yet if Zhadan also plans to off-load post-marital affairs-of-the-heart to automation.
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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.