This past holiday season was an interesting one. As college students came home for the break, they introduced many of their family and relatives to ChatGPT for the first time, and showed of its capabilities. I’ve spoken with many of these people, and I was sometimes asked the question, “So, what does this mean for you as a writer?”
This isn’t the first time that I–as a writer, freelancer, and owner of a content marketing agency–have been asked about the possibility of computers eventually being able to automate the job that pays my bills. But every time the question is asked, the technology is a little bit better… and this time around, it seems like the tech in question really is “getting there.”
Many people, from writers to tech gurus to philosophers, have already written pieces on the prospects (and implications) of ChatGPT. While I was hesitant to add to the pile, I also realized that this was a golden opportunity. Why not bring together some of our writers and have them share their thoughts on ChatGPT? What does this technology mean for content creation, and for writing in particular? And how might writers use it in the near future?
That led to this online symposium. The goal was to collect some of our thoughts on the matter in a thoughtful way, and from the perspective of professional writers and content marketers. What we found is that writers are actually optimistic about the possibilities…but also have some important warnings about AI’s limitations.
Dan Gower’s piece How AI Is (and Isn’t) Revolutionizing Content Marketing is a good example of both, showing how ChatGPT can be a useful tool for writers, albeit one that cannot provide creativity nor fact check itself.
Elizabeth Schreckenberg points out in her piece, Why Human Writers are Here to Stay, that the things ChatGPT can’t do make it incapable or replacing human writers, especially for the kind of content other humans want to read.
Gregory Bussman’s piece Let’s Tap the Brakes on AI Generated Content is a little more skeptical of AI, pointing out that is still falls short of what humans can do when it comes to generating content that really matters for digital marketing and search.
My own piece, AI and GPT: Have We Really Thought About What’s Coming?, takes things a step further. I start by assuming AI can do everything its proponents say, and draw out what this means for the future of work–and what we will need to do to cope with an AI future.
Hopefully, there’s a little something in here for everyone. Enjoy!