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AI Marketing School Newsletter #6

On Tuesday, OpenAI launched the large multimodal model we’ve all been waiting for: GPT-4.

In a masterclass of marketing in its own right, Greg Brockman (OpenAI President and Co-Founder) livestreamed himself using ChatGPT (running GPT-4) to do some pretty mind-blowing stuff.

This included:

• Doing somebody’s taxes in about 2 minutes and then turning them into a poem. Yes, you read that correctly.

• Turning a napkin sketch into a fully-fledged website 

Because GPT-4 is multimodal, it accepts image and text inputs—although it only outputs text.

And while GPT-3.5 scraped through on the Uniform Bar Exam, GPT-4 passed with flying colors in the 90th percentile.

Yikes. That’s a hell of a glow-up.

Having spent the last 48-hours experimenting with GPT-4 (it’s currently available to ChatGPT Plus users), we can confirm: it’s amazing.

It generates content that’s far superior to ChatGPT 3.5 It can read and generate up to 25,000 words at a time, almost 8x its predecessor, meaning it can understand and create genuinely long-form content.

When Chat-GPT first burst onto the scene, we felt a mixture of awe and “oh shit, we’re going to lose our jobs.”

And when playing around with GPT-4, we got that very same feeling x100.

So, what Does GPT-4 Mean for Content Marketers and SEOs?

GPT-4 means content marketers and SEO experts have their very own creative/research genius, available 24/7.

What, so like GPT-3?

Yes—but better. Far better. It’s like if you hired GPT3’s sibling and quickly discovered GPT-4’s the smart one in the family.

It can produce a higher quality and quantity of text, and is less likely to make errors. Win win.

However, the rate at which it’s improving begs the existential question: what can content marketers and SEO specialists do that AI can’t? Or, won’t be able to in a few year’s time?

The jury’s still out on that.

Will ChatGPT replace search engines?

No. Microsoft owns OpenAI and has embedded GPT-4 into Bing. Google’s Bard is not far away. It’s unlikely that we are going to move away from Google. It’s more likely that these AI capabilities will live inside these search engines.

Integration, not complete annihilation.

STOP producing these types of content

AI will soon completely take over certain types of content:

• Snippets: If users are looking for an answer everyone can agree on, why waste time navigating basic ‘What is’ or ‘How to’ articles? This is basically an extension of featured snippets.

  
  Rather than using search to find an answer that looks right, users will flock to AI for clear, succinct responses. Think of it as snippets on steroids.
  

• Generic content: Content marketers can no longer afford to regurgitate what everyone else is saying. Because when we all agree, we write the same content.
  
  And when all the content in the top results is the same, Google might as well use AI and serve it up in a steroid snippet.

FOCUS instead on these types of content

So, you should instead focus on these types:

• Opinion pieces: GPT-4 can’t replicate our individual thoughts and feelings—it just amalgamates what’s already out there. We need to double down on our human perspectives, thoughts, and feelings.
  
  Dare to say what nobody else will. Share your individual perceptions and add something new to the narrative. Disagree with the prevailing narrative when appropriate.

  
  

• Diverse topics: De-risk your content strategy by writing about different things from different angles. This way, if one of your query classes gets chomped on by AI, you can still win.
  
  Don't be weather.com.

  
  

• Helpful content: Google’s Helpful Content Update will demote “content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.”
  
  If your content strategy relies on the same content optimization tools and semantic keywords that everyone else uses, then your content’s not particularly informative. It doesn't add anything new. So, stop wasting your time and focus on how you can be more helpful than whatever already exists.

• Future-focused content: LLMs and LMMs like GPT-4 are trained on all the content that’s ever existed. They do or soon will know your topic’s past better than you do.
  
  But if you’re a true subject matter expert, you’ll know something it won’t—how today’s trends will shape the future. For example, Google could well start rewarding content that features topics at the fringes of the mainstream but that are starting to come into focus.

Recommended Reading

The 3 juiciest bits of AI content this week.

1. CNET's Post-AI Layoffs Apparently Gut 50% of Its News and Video Staff
   Tl;dr CNET's editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo becomes the company's VP of AI content strategy, triggering a raft of layoffs. CNET denies AI is the cause.
   

2. Why AI Won't Cause Unemployment (and part 2)
   Tl;dr In a meandering but thought-provoking article, Marc Andreessen of a16z fame explains why we shouldn’t be scared of AI. 1. We’ve been scared of new tech for hundreds of years, and AI is no different. 2. AI is already “illegal” across the fastest-growing industries, which are all government-controlled.

3. Artificial Intelligence is Revolutionizing Marketing. Here's What the Transformation Means for the Industry
   Tl;dr AI Marketing is skyrocketing. In 2021, the market was worth $15.84 billion. By 2028, it will be $107.5 billion. Programmatic advertising is a big growth area. AI and ML tech can optimize and streamline current marketing approaches but won’t yet replace the marketers themselves.

Thanks so much for reading. With the abundance of content on the internet, your attention means a lot. If you have any suggestions or feedback on how we can improve the newsletter, please shoot us a reply. We'd love to hear from you!

Until next time. Happy marketing.

Tom and Charlie