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Will AI Replace Copywriters and Content Writers?
Greetings, fellow humans. Welcome to AI Marketing School, where our goal is to empower us all with expert-level knowledge at the intersection of artificial intelligence and marketing.
This week we're talking about writing. What does the rise of ChatGPT mean for those of us that write for a living? Are we all f*cked? Or can these tools boost our productivity and earnings?
We also review Modal Podcast Transcriber, an AI tool claiming to transcribe podcasts in their entirety within 2 minutes or less. It holds the potential to unlock a wealth of new content for use. But the question remains, is it all talk?
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Onward!
1. Notes đź“ť
Will AI Replace Copywriters and Content Writers?
AI’s meteoric rise has hit the copywriting/content writing industry harder than adulthood hit McCauley Culkin.
Mid-last year, if you asked most copywriters/content writers about AI, they wouldn’t trust it to write a note telling the Amazon delivery driver to leave the package in your dog’s mouth.
Now, AI (ChatGPT to be specific) has passed the bar exam. That’s a hell of a glow-up.
Since it launched back in late 2022, ChatGPT has made waves. Everyone’s talking about it. Even my mum asked me if I was worried, and she’s about as up-to-date as the Amish.
Just kidding—though she does live in a wooden house. Hmm…
GPT has reached a level that no other AI has yet accomplished. It’s so good that it’s virtually indistinguishable from people, especially when you compare it to average writers.
So what does that mean for copywriters/content writers as a whole? Let’s find out.
On the one hand, consider running for the hills
The cat’s out the bag. Elvis has left the building. AI will only get more powerful from here on out, and the rate at which it improves will be scary.
Companies used to pay decent dollars for okay-ish articles. Y’know, the ones where you basically read the top 5 - 10 articles that pop up in the SERPS, cherry-pick bits from each, summarize in your own words, and submit.
But AI can do this in minutes, and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper.
Does it need fine-tuning and finessing? Sure.
Does it sometimes make up stats? Don’t we all Lil bit.
Does it occasionally spit out boring AF responses? Yep, especially if you give it a dull prompt.
That said, it does the bulk of the work in creating an article far quicker than a person can. It can generate an outline in seconds before fleshing out each point. Add some seasoning, like an expert insight or some new stats, and double-check in an AI review tool like Grammarly.
Bam. Boom. Bob’s your uncle.
So if you’re the type of copywriter who produces standard-issue articles without adding anything new to the conversation, yeah, you should be worried. Terrified, even.
On the other hand, show it who’s boss
What separates great writers from the rest?
Great writers add something new to the conversation.
Most of what you read online is repurposed from what the writer has read elsewhere. Fine. However, that doesn’t really help anyone.
It might help your company get more visitors or your blog get more subscribers, but you didn’t really advance society whatsoever.
You just kinda went “yeah, what they said”.
Can AI do that? Yep, and it can do it much cheaper and quicker than you can. But it’s not so great at adding things to the conversation.
AI tools are trained with language models. You feed it data about a topic and it’ll regurgitate something close to what you put in. Think of it like a soup. The texture and taste might change slightly, but it contains whatever you put in and nothing else.
This represents an opportunity for copywriters/content writers.
If you can distinguish your writing from the regurgitated waffle that pervades the internet, you’ll likely keep your job.
For example, make your content go above and beyond what AI can produce by including:
Quotes with experts
New opinions
Humor
Storytelling
Make it so damn distinctive there’s no way a machine would’ve written it. The best part is, you can do this while still using AI. It doesn’t have to be a binary choice between using it or not.
Let AI do some of the heavy lifting—creating outlines, sparking ideas, summarizing what’s out there—before you add that special something.
Our takeaway: writers can no longer afford to be lazy
As a copywriter/content writer myself, I’ve ridden the lilo of laziness for a fair while now. That’s not to say my work’s been shit—at least, nobody’s had the guts to tell me if it is—but I got to the stage where I knew specific industries and the basics of how to write an article so well that I could do it on autopilot.
But these are the kind of articles that AI will increasingly handle. The next-to-zero thought, mostly-curation type of pieces.
This means copywriters/content writers need to kick themselves into gear and quit being lazy. Myself included. We need to use AI to make us better at the meat n’ potatoes while we focus on drizzling some unique sauce all over this shizz.
If we do that, we’ll be able to hold onto our jobs… For now.
2. Reading List đź“–
Substack supremo, Lenny Rachitsky, built a Lenny chatbot using GPT-3 and help from Danny Shipper. In this article, he explains how to build your own. Super-interesting. (LINK)
"150 ChatGPT Prompts You Can’t Miss To Try Out In 2023." Bit of a silly title but definitely worth a read. (LINK)
Microsoft says they'll demo a new ChatGPT-like AI in Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook soon. Pray we never have to make another Powerpoint slide. (LINK)
3. Experiment 🔬
How to Transcribe Podcasts in Seconds with AI
The other day, I was listening to a great podcast while out walking the dog. It was Ben Tossel on Creator Lab, in case you're wondering. During the chat, I heard a snippet about how Ben started his no-code community, Makerpad, that I wanted to reference in an article I was writing.
When I got back home, I started skipping through the podcast to find that snippet. But I couldn't find it. And it was really pissing me off tbh. So I started Googling around to find an AI tool that could help.
First, I came across Otter AI, which promises "Podcast Transcription Made Easy." But it wasn't easy! I signed up and quickly churned as I couldn't work out the interface immediately, and I'm a very impatient person.
Next, I tried Modal Podcast Transcriber, which uses OpenAI's automatic speech recognition (ASR) system, Whisper. And it worked beautifully. All you have to do is enter the name of the podcast into the search bar, select the right episode, and click to start.
In less than two minutes, I had a full podcast transcription. I then used Command+F to find the right quote.
So if you want to spice up your articles with the wealth of compelling information being shared every day on podcasts, I highly recommend Modal Podcast Transcriber (10/10).
You talk. We Listen. And Reply!
Thanks for reading. If you have any suggestions or feedback–or just want somebody to talk to–reply to this email. We'd love to hear from you and promise to respond.
Until next week. Happy Marketing.
Tom and Charlie