Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionised various industries, with sophisticated AI content creation programmes like Chat GPT now being capable of generating human-like text, including articles, stories, poems…and even code. This has raised important questions about its implications for the future of certain industries, particularly that of content creation. In this blog post, we’ll look at the potential opportunities and threats associated with AI-generated content.
The advantages and disadvantages of AI-generated content
It’s true that there are benefits that come with using AI to generate content – most notably that it can increase content output. However, there are concerns about its quality, authenticity and how it affects search engine optimisation (SEO).
What are the pros of AI content creation?
Here are some key ways in which AI content creation tools can be beneficial.
Efficient idea generation
Establishing a brand as an authority in its field requires regular, consistent content creation., but generating new content ideas can sometimes prove challenging. This is where AI content generators can contribute with initial suggestions, such as a list of blog post titles potentially relevant to your target audience.
Less research time
Occasionally content writers may struggle to create authoritative content for subjects they know little about – a task which requires a significant amount of research time. However, AI tools like Chat GPT can pull insights from various web sources on any topic imaginable, helping writers save time on the pre-writing research needed to create quality content.
Quick content turnaround
Considering the current demand for higher volumes of content, possibly the biggest benefit of AI tools is that they can generate text in very little time. An AI content generator can produce an article in minutes, whereas a human writer would need hours.
What are the cons of AI content creation?
Despite the apparent benefits of AI tools, they do come with a number of drawbacks. Let’s look at some of the most significant ones.
Quality issues
AI relies on data and algorithms for content, and although AI tools are able to cover black and white topics quite comprehensively, they do struggle to create quality content on more subjective matters. Apart from this, if AI tools are used without any human intervention, there is a high risk that search engines may flag this content as untrustworthy. This is because AI tools simply piece content together from various sites and reword them.
Possible plagiarism
In order to create content, AI tools pull data from multiple sources. However, there are never any references showing where the information originates from – this could result in AI generated content being too similar to work that has already been published elsewhere, which poses a legal risk. And with the rise of AI content detection tools, such as ZeroGPT and Originality.AI, it is becoming increasingly easy to find out if AI has been heavily relied on to create content.
Lack of personality and tone of voice
Another key downfall of AI generated text is that it rarely takes into consideration tone of voice and personalisation – two important elements necessary for brand authenticity. Since AI relies on existing web content and data to develop its wording, the text generated often lacks creativity, as well as stylistic features like irony and humour.
The need for human intervention
Lastly, and possibly most important to note, is that human editing of AI content creation is still very much a necessity. Although AI tools may save some time, quality assurance needs to be conducted by professional copywriters to correct any errors, fact check, and reword sentences to cater for brand tone of voice.
Does AI generated content affect SEO?
When AI tools first came out, Google initially announced that AI generated content was against their guidelines and would be considered spam. However, Google Search has recently changed its stance to say that if businesses use AI to produce content, they won’t be penalised, so long as the content is relevant and useful. To explain this, Google’s guidance about AI-generated content has introduced the concept of E-E-A-T, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. As long as AI content is optimised to take into consideration these requirements, it has the potential to rank highly on Google. That being said, if AI content is left unedited by human writers, it is unlikely to fit these criteria.
Finding the balance
Evidently AI content creation tools bring with them both pros and cons. However, instead of viewing AI as a replacement for certain professions, it’s more helpful to strike a balance between human and AI collaboration. By harnessing the power of AI to automate some tasks, content creators can focus on those that require human intelligence and critical thinking – aspects which AI tools are simply unable to cater for.
Wrapping up
While AI content creation tools can enhance productivity and provide valuable insights, they do bring with them significant concerns about quality, authenticity and reliability. It’s also worth remembering that AI content generators are still in their infancy. As AI technology continues to advance, it is essential to navigate this new landscape thoughtfully. At ainsley.dev we know how important it is to create high-quality, SEO-optimised content for your business. That’s why we advise that it would be unwise to rely solely on AI, but rather embrace it as a complementary tool. Get in touch with us to find out what our team can do to elevate your business’ content strategy.
