ChatGPT: A Year On

It’s been 12 months since ChatGPT-3 was unleashed, now with a reported 100 million active users a week. I’m wondering what the impact has been.

I’ve chatted with lots of individuals and businesses over the past year about Generative AI. Conversations that have ranged from “I just don’t know where to start” to “Freelance work has been slow this year, I think it’s because all businesses are using AI”.

Most have wondered how they can, or should, integrate this technology into their work.

The Genie is out of the bottle, but as all genies are, it is flawed by a lack of humanity and emotional intelligence.

The truth is that AI cannot fully replicate human language. It struggles with humour and human connection. It lacks authenticity, which is so important for brands when trying to communicate with their customers.

Sure, ChatGPT can very quickly create multiple forms of content based on a single question, but the quality of the output depends on creating quality prompts. Which requires its own set of quite unique skills. 

Generative AI must be seen as a tool, and like any tool, you need to choose the right one for the job.

“Sometimes you need a screwdriver for a screw. Not a hammer that you tell to be a screwdriver” *

(*I read that somewhere, apologies for the plagiarism, but it hits the nail on the head!)

AI has a place in content creation and is highly proficient in creating drafts, meaning marketing and communications teams can spend their time perfecting and refining the content (I cannot emphasise enough the importance of review). As any good marketeer knows, time must also be spent working on the brief.  

Striking a balance between the strengths of ChatGPT and human expertise remains key for businesses to harness its full potential.

If you want to train your teams about what good (and bad) looks like, then get in touch to discuss our workshop ‘Using AI to Write Better Comms’.