If you’re a writer, you’ll be aware of the AI content-generation tool called ChatGPT. It took the world by storm and its popularity is spreading fast. Yes, this tool is awesome. It is smart. It is amazing. It will generate a 2000-word post in less than two minutes. Unfortunately, it has its downsides as well.
Let me quickly discuss its main advantages and after that, I’ll list the reasons why writers should not depend solely on ChatGPT or any other AI-content generation tool.
Benefits of ChatGPT
Fast Turnaround – The biggest reason a lot of people are catching the ChatGPT fever is its lightning speed of content generation. With the tool, you can generate up to 10,000 words of articles/posts or content in a single day. In other words, the tool will increase your productivity by over 1000%. Of course, who doesn’t want to reach his/her full potential?
No Writer’s Block – This is the temporary lack of ideas on what you want to write. While trying to write about a topic, you might have problems coming up with ideas on the outline of the topic. I have encountered it several times, and so have a lot of writers. ChatPT will almost certainly help you out. It will generate an outline for you in a matter of seconds.
Better SEO? – You must have observed that this point has a question mark. It is deliberate. Yes, the tool can generate keyword-optimized content for you. It’s even more amazing that you don’t need to supply the relevant keywords. ChatGPT will discover the keywords on its own.
But let’s look at the bigger picture. Google does not like AI-generated content and it has a set of algorithms with the ability to detect and de-rank pages with AI-generated content. So, what benefit is it to you if your keyword-optimized content raises your page rank only for Google to de-rank you? That’s why I put a question mark on it.
Low Cost – Of course, you’ll pay to subscribe to ChatGPT service if you’re not satisfied with the free plan. To use ChatGPT Plus (a premium plan), you’ll have to cough out $20 every month. This is almost nothing compared to how much you’ll pay a single writer per month on an hourly basis or per article piece. So, the tool has brought down the cost of content generation. You can’t blame anyone for joining the ChatGPT bandwagon. Cutting costs is part of every business.
Now, let’s talk about why you should not put all your trust in ChatGPT
Downsides of ChatGPT
Plagiarism concerns – I have been using the tool for over 3 months and I’m yet to come across any plagiarism issues. In fact, I usually run the content it generates through Grammarly and CopyScape but I have never been hit with any plagiarized snippets. However, there have been a few reports about the tool running users into plagiarism waters. So, you can’t rule out the possibility.
Google’s knock – You don’t want Google to jeopardize your SEO efforts by reducing the rank of your web pages as a punitive measure for posting AI-generated content. As a writer, you should be aware that Google does not like such content. Rather, the search engine prefers high-quality content created by humans for humans. So, it has programs that can detect AI-generated content when Google bots are crawling your pages. And when such content is detected, the pages will be de-ranked or de-indexed completely.
Well, a fellow writer has a smart and seemingly effective workaround for this. He sends the content generated by ChatGPT to another article-rewriting tool before posting it on his blog. Since none of his web pages has been de-ranked, I’d like to assume that this method still works. However, I don’t think it will work for long because Google constantly upgrades its facilities. And when Google’s knock will hit him, he won’t see it coming!
Low Quality – In terms of formatting articles and providing useful information, ChatGPT does an awesome job. But when it comes to putting some touches of creativity into blog posts, the tool isn’t there yet. For example, it uses words like ultimately and overall too many times. And that often leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
If your audience only cares about the information in your blog posts, this may not be a problem for you. However, remember that any day they come across another blog that presents the same set of information in a more creative and interesting way, they are likely to ditch your blog. So, it is necessary to add creativity to your articles now.
So, should you dump ChatGPT?
No no no! I am not saying you should stop using the tool. Of course, it’s a fantastic tool that has made my work a lot easier. What I’m saying in essence is that you should allow the tool to generate some content, rewrite the content, and put some creativity into it before publishing it. Let ChatGPT do only half of the job and not the whole job. Human touch is necessary.