The Pros and Cons of an AI Text Generator

Oct. 26, 2022

(The following post, “AI Text Generator,” is sponsored by Digital Ubiquity. It was researched, written and edited by Digital Ubiquity and reflects the firm’s perspective.)

Writing auto-produced by an AI text generator offers users head-turning benefits — at often bargain prices.

But you’ll still want to take a hard look at the pros and cons of the tech before parting with hard cash for the tool of your choice.

Increasing numbers of businesses have been turning to AI text generators during the past two years to automate creation of virtually every form of writing.

Articles, blog posts, ads, product descriptions, social media posts, speeches — and more — are all easily auto-generated by expert users of AI writing tools.

And in many cases, these tools auto-produce quality copy much more quickly and much more inexpensively than human writers.

But the quality of these tools does vary widely.

And despite the gee-whiz reaction they often engender, AI text generators still may not be for everyone.

Here’s a look at the key factors to consider before taking the leap.

Using An AI Text Generator: Pros

Fast 

Granted, the human mind is a wondrous phenomenon. 

But when it comes to cranking-out basic copy fast, humans are no match for AI writing.  

Simply put, most AI writers on the market today are interfaces to GPT-3 — an extremely sophisticated auto-writing engine that runs on a supercomputer.

Essentially, that gives AI content generators access to more processing power and memory than a single human brain could ever hope for.

Cheap 

Relatively speaking, an AI text generator is much more affordable than a human writer.

In the hands of an experienced user, an AI text generator can produce hundreds of articles for pennies on the dollar when compared to the costs of a top-notch pro writer.

Much to the fear of many pro writers today, some businesses using AI writers may never worry about hiring or training a human writer again.

Moreover, there are 60+ AI text generators on the market today — with more seeming joining the fray on an almost weekly basis.

This extreme competition for your AI-generated text dollar helps ensure prices will stay relatively low for AI text generation for the foreseeable future.

In fact, one AI writer, HeyFriday.AI, currently charges $59/month to auto-generate an infinite number of words.

AI Text Generators are Easy 

While it takes most people a bit of time before they get the hang of AI writing, once they’ve reached the plateau of ‘expert user,’ the rest is a cakewalk.

Power-user status– when it comes to an AI text generator — means you’ll be able to sit in front of your computer and generate numerous articles each day without breaking a sweat.

Essentially, you’ll have an opportunity to create more basic copy each day than a pro writer — even if you don’t see yourself as naturally adept at writing.

Many Writing Styles  

One of the great allures of the AI content generator is its ability to mimic the writing styles of famous authors, poets, songwriters — essentially anyone who uses words.

This is seen as a powerful feature by many companies, which see real value in an AI writer that can generate text in their brand voice.

Even better: A few AI writers on the market can now be trained to write in your personal writing style.

This is an attractive feature for many pro writers, who have so far resisted the siren call of automated writing.

Virtually All Writing Formats

Leading firms in AI text generation have invested considerable time and money during the past two years, ensuring that their software can render copy in virtually all copy formats.

Long-form articles, posts, ads, product descriptions, slogans, emails, email subject heads, Web pages, speeches — imagine a copy format and you’ll most likely find it built into the most sophisticated AI writers on the market today.

One good way to check for available writing formats in the auto-writing software you’re considering: AI-generated text tools often offer pre-configured templates that users can reach for to create in their desired format.

One leading AI writer — Jasper — for example, offers 50+ templates to help ensure its users are able to quickly auto-generate text in the forms they prefer. 

AI Text Generators are Great Brainstormers

Besides quickly auto-generating copy, autowriters are also great for brainstorming new ideas for the content you’re looking to create.

Often, it’s as simple as inputting something like, “List marketing strategies for oceanfront restaurants” — and your AI writer will auto-return a handy list of those strategies.

Plus: One of the great beauties of AI-generated text is if you’re not satisfied with the first results, you can prompt the AI writer to try again — and again — until it comes up with something dazzling.

Perfect Paraphraser

As with brainstorming, if you’re not happy with a sentence or paragraph produced via AI text generation, you can simply trigger the tool to paraphrase what it has given you again and again until it gets it right.

Of course, there may be times when nothing comes back that truly wows you.

But if you’re willing to play with the text you input and experiment with the AI writer, you should get satisfying results much more often than not.

Excellent Summarizer

Currently, the auto text generator is no match for a human in terms of summarizing capabilities.

But it’s still pretty good. 

The reason why AI summarization works:  Most AI writers are able to deliver summaries to you using extractive summarization, which involves selecting the most important sentences from a text and then rewriting them in a concise way.

Lots of Specialization

Rabid competition among AI writers has led to increased specialization from these tool providers.

Anyword, for example, specializes in auto-generating marketing copy designed to ensure that any marketing message you auto-create is optimized for the gender, age, shopping preferences and other demographics you’re looking to attract.

And HelloScribe is designed to auto-generate copy written in the style of your favorite newspaper or magazine.

Still other tools, like AISEO, Scalenut and WordLift specialize in auto-generating SEO copy — or copy optimized to rank high in search engine returns for certain keywords and keyphrases.

Meanwhile, AI writer Article Forge attempts to elevate automation to a virtual art form.

It not only auto-generates copy for you: It also offers you the ability to auto-publish that copy directly to your WordPress blog.

For more on the increasing specialization of the auto text generator, check out, “Artificial Intelligence Writing Software: Ultimate Guide.”

Ever-Improving AI Text Generator Tech

AI text generation was catapulted into the fast lane in Summer 2020, when OpenAI released GPT-3 — a supercomputer-driven AI writer that runs at the heart of most AI writers today.

Hordes of brilliant minds have been advancing the capabilities of the tech ever since.

And given seemingly insatiable business and consumer interest — they appear destined to do so for the foreseeable future.

Serious Investor Interest

Investment in AI is frothy right now, and investment in AI text generation is among the frothiest.

Jasper, an industry leader, for example, recently snared $125 million in new funding and has a current market valuation of $1.5 billion.

That kind of serious money virtually guarantees Jasper will be around for a while — as will many of its hardy competitors.

Using an AI Text Generator: Cons

Needs Considerable Tweaking

While nearly magical for its ability to auto-generate new content, the auto text generator nevertheless must be nursed along to produce long-form articles.

The reason: When left to their own devices, these tools often produce nonsensical long-form text.

That’s because the algorithm behind the AI text generator is not yet sophisticated enough to understand the complex relationships between words and concepts.

The fix: Users looking for precisely written long-form articles generally must create them by prompting their AI writer to come-up with precise text, one paragraph at a time.

In practice, this translates into inputting a description of each paragraph you’d like the autowriter to generate — which some users consider tedious.

Overly General Articles

Another drawback with AI text generation is that without close supervision, the tools tend to crank-out extremely general-sounding articles that really offer nothing new.

Think: A cow chewing its cud for the tenth time.

This is especially the case if you’re hoping to generate a long-form article with just a few words of input.

Again, for a precision, creative result, you generally need to enter a new input for each paragraph you’d like to auto-generate when using an AI writer for long-form article, blog post and similar writing.

Errors of Fact With AI Text Generators

Unfortunately, an AI content generator that uses GPT-3 or tech similar for its autowriting engine often auto-generates fanciful explanations and hallucinated ‘facts.’

One reason: GPT-3 relies on a predictive statistical model to produce text — and quite frankly, the model sometimes makes mistakes. 

Another problem: GPT-3 often produces text by combining information from multiple sources — one or more of which may be inaccurate.

Yet another challenge: GPT-3 is designed to produce fluent and coherent text — which in some cases, may force the AI writer to invent ‘facts’ so the text it produces flows more smoothly. 

Unfortunately, the only work-around here is for the user to manually check on facts served-up by the auto text generator that seem questionable.

Some Writing Styles Unavailable

While the best in today’s AI text generation mimics a number of writing styles and tones, some users may find that some tools come-up short on a specific style they’d like to see rendered.

Again, the root of this problem is that GPT-3 relies heavily on statistical methods to generate text — rather than producing writing that actually relies on the meaning of the words it’s using.

Until developers solve this flaw, some users may have to settle for a writing voice that is ‘close’ to what they want — but not a home run.

Time Suck

While most users grasp the novelty of the AI text generator almost immediately, it takes most people some time to master the tech.

Experienced users say success usually comes after you’ve experimented with AI writing for a fair amount of time, watched numerous videos produced by power users and interacted with one or more online communities that — over time — can elevate you to expert status.

It’s a proven formula for success.

But nevertheless, it’s a Time Suck.

Finished Work Often a Compromise

No matter how good you get at using an AI text generator, the fact remains that the finished work will be rendered by a machine.

Granted, AI writers are very good at what they do.

But so far, they’re still no match for the best of human writers, who can imbue a piece of writing with a blend of rhythm, nuance, subtly, wit and soul that — so far — a machine cannot quite emulate.

So in the end, the output AI writers generate is often a compromise when compared to what a human writer can create.

AI Text Generators Can be Pricey For Individuals

While intense competition among AI writers is keeping prices down, they can still be seen as pricey by everyday consumers on limited budgets.

Jasper, one of the market’s leading AI writers, for example, currently costs $99-a-month to auto-generate 100,000 words.

At first blush, 100,000 words may sound like a lot.

But users writing long-form articles find those word credits disappear very quickly as they continually prompt Jasper to auto-generate one paragraph-at-a-time — sometimes over and over again — to get the kind of paragraph that rings-the-bell for them.

Too Many ‘Me-To’ Wannabees

Unfortunately, the current intense interest in auto-text-generation tools has spawned a number of ‘Me-Too’ Wannabees that fall far short of what the market leaders offer.

For those in the know, it’s easy enough to bypass the pretenders.

But if you’re brand-new to AI writing, you could be taken in by a start-up that has incredibly magnetic marketing — and a lousy product.

World Knowledge Stops at 2019

While GPT-3 — the supercomputing autowriting engine that runs at the core of most AI content generators today — has great knowledge, its familiarity with the world hit a brick wall in 2019.

That’s the year GPT-3’s creators, OpenAI, trained the software on general world knowledge and writing styles by having it ingest a significant amount of what was published on the Web and elsewhere.

The result: GPT-3 — and the autowriters that serve as interfaces to the software — has no idea of what Covid-19 is all about, why people are so upset over the Ukraine — or who looked absolutely hideous at Met Gala 2022.

Granted, the most sophisticated of auto text generators enable you to spoon-feed new data into their software if you’re looking to write an article that features post-2019 information, analysis and perspectives.

But again, that takes extra time.

Widely Used for ‘Good Enough’ Copy

Sadly, AI content generators are increasingly becoming the source of long-form articles whose quality is only ‘good enough.’

The root of this trend: Too many people using AI writers are not writers themselves.

They lack the artistic perception to distinguish between what is ‘okay writing’ — and writing that truly sings. 

Even more disturbing: Many of these users could care less about generating great writing.

For them, good enough gets the job done.

Sadly, this mindset has resulted in a glut of uninspired writing that has littered the Web and social media.

And it appears destined to ‘churn-out’ good enough writing for the foreseeable future.

That’s unfortunate for everyone: When the Web and social media are perceived as standard-bearers of mediocrity, everyone loses.

Bottom Line

As long as you go in with eyes wide open that AI writers are collaborative tools that can produce excellent writing in the hands of an expert user, you should be very pleased with what the market has to offer.

Given the current over-the-top competition among AI writing tool makers, there’s a very good chance you can find a tool that already suits your precise needs — or will do so shortly.

Moreover, opting to bring AI writing in-house will ensure that you’ll soon have a deep understanding of what the technology offers — as well as how it promises to evolve in the foreseeable future.

Essentially: AI text generation is evolving at a rapid pace and bringing real value to businesses and individual users, right now.

Ignoring the tech — or perceiving it as little more than an interesting fad — will almost certainly put you and your business at a distinct disadvantage.

The Top Ten AI Text Generators for 2022

Now that you’ve got the pros and cons — and a great frame-of-reference — for evaluating the market in AI text generation, you’ll probably want a look at the top contenders.

A good way to get a handle on those is to consult leading software recommendation sites G2Crowd, Capeterra, SoftwareAdvice.com and GetApp.com and see which solutions are consistently come out on top.

Currently, each of the following AI text generators is highly rated on one or more of the above software advice sites.

Plus, each solution also boasts at least 100 reviews from users. 

(Not featured on this list are AI ‘writing assistants.’ AI writing assistants are used primarily for editing content — not content creation.)

The top ten AI writers based on those guidelines – in no particular order — are:

• Writesonic
• Scalenut
• Jasper
• Ryter
• Simplified
• Copy.ai
• BusinessPeppertype
• Anyword
• Frase
• SEMRush

Happy hunting.

FAQ

What is an AI text generator?

An AI text generator is a software solution that uses artificial intelligence to auto-generate written content.

How does an AI text generator work?

An AI text generator works by using natural language generation and machine learning algorithms to generate written content.

What are the benefits of using an AI text generator?

The benefits of using an AI text generator include the ability to generate high-quality content quickly, efficiently and inexpensively.

What are the drawbacks of using an AI text generator?

The drawbacks of using an AI text generator include the potential for errors in the generated content, the time needed to become an expert, as well as the need for human editing to ensure quality.

What are the best AI text generators?

The best AI text generators — according to user reviews on top software advice sites — are Writesonic, Scalenut, Jasper, Ryter, Simplified, Copy.ai, BusinessPeppertype, Anyword, Frase.io, and SEMRush.

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