Using AI writing tools for content creation is not entirely new but these tools are also not very well understood yet or widely used by small content creators. Because they can be helpful in some contexts, they can be useful for helping create content. But they have their limitations. To serve their purpose, AI writing tools shouldn’t remain a mystery. So below we’ll explain in layman’s terms what these tools are, how they work, plus when and if they’re actually useful for creating written content.
What are AI Writing Tools?
Although the buzz about using AI writing tools for content creation is a pretty recent thing, these tools have been around for awhile. Tools like Grammarly help users check tone, assist somewhat with structure, and suggest grammar changes, usage and spelling corrections. Predictive text tries to make communication faster and easier. Even autocorrect, which has been around for forever, relatively speaking, is in the same family as these new AI writing tools.
These tools fit under the umbrella of what we’re now calling AI. In reality, all AI are simply algorithms. The type of AI we have access to for creating content are called large language models. They are not true intelligence and they are not artificial. They are fed by human knowledge and programmed to do exactly what they do. It’s just that now, we’re seeing more generative AI writing tools become available for use by the general public.
The difference between previous tools and Generative AI and other large language models is that users can now create prompts and define guidelines while the AI assembles content based on these prompts and guidelines from the vast pool of content on the internet. They glean and they copy. They don’t truly create much of anything, because it already exists somewhere in some form. This is why using AI writing tools for content creation has its limitations.
How Do They Actually Work?
As mentioned above, AI is not some entity creating ideas and content from nothing. AI writing tools are simply an algorithm. Algorithms learn from being fed sets of data that can be structured or unstructured. It may seem like it’s making conclusions or creating content on its own, but it is simply gleaning from data sets and extrapolating from recognized patterns. In other words, it scans and makes connections. These AI writing tools just have a whole internet to scan and extrapolate from now.
These algorithms are good at taking already known things and regurgitating them in different forms, depending on the prompt/s given. It is not some miracle. They are programmed to do just these things, and as of now, they’re not very good at it. Or at least not as good as a human creator.
For the record, we conducted some experiments to see what we could come up with. The results were, let’s just say, less than impressive. Using AI writing tools for content creation doesn’t mean you don’t have to put in work. You do. Oftentimes just as much effort and time are involved as if you wrote it yourself. If you want it to be quality content anyway.
If you are curious, and have a few more minutes, you can view the results of some of our experiments with ChatGPT here.
But using AI writing tools for content creation isn’t all bad. There are ways in which they can be helpful.
How Using AI Writing Tools for Content Creation Can Be Helpful
Despite these newer AI writing tools being mostly very bad at creating whole content on their own, they can be useful for helping YOU create content in some ways.
You can use these tools for ideas and structure when you’re feeling writer’s block taking over, or you’re short on time. These are what we’ve discovered they’re most helpful for, because as we noted, they aren’t great for creating long form content unless you get really good at prompts and want to spend a lot of time editing and fact checking. Which you do when YOU write an article yourself, right? So, why bother with that part. Use them for the following:
- Ideas
- Outlines
- Spelling, Grammar and structure(but not always)
- Finding Keywords
- Experimenting with style and tone
What AI Writing Tools Can’t Do(and what you should not be using them for despite what you’re hearing)
The problem with content created by scanning the internet is that it’s unreliable and limited(as you’ll see from our experiments). It’s also not genuinely yours.
Despite being able to create prompts for style and tone, using AI writing tools for content creation alone also leaves your content lacking a unique point of view. Algorithms cannot create unique points of view, write from personal experience, and connect on a human level like, well, humans do. Algorithms also tend to make up facts when relevant ones aren’t available on the internet. They’re also not great at relating facts to the topic at hand. In other words, you won’t get quality content without a fair amount of effort and guidance on your part.
AI created content is NOT good for creating any content that is:
- Creative
- Genuine
- Unique
- Fact based
- Quality
We’d like to conclude with this: So far, AI content DOES NOT perform well in Google. Though How To type articles tend to pop up often in answer to internet queries. But these are not considered quality content. Also, Google insists it’s tweaking its algorithms to not allow this content to game the system like the old tactic of keyword stuffing did back in the earlier days of the internet.
So if you’re using AI writing tools for content creation on a blog or for copywriting, or for SEO purposes, you’ll need to do a lot of editing and revising and adding keywords, etc. You’ll also need to make sure it makes sense, is unique, relevant and quality. So far, these large language models are unable to do this on their own. Therefore, it’s best not to rely on them as your content creation machine. But they can be helpful if applied correctly, and with some trial and error, for doing some things to boost your content output.
Remember, these tools are not some miracle and they’re also nothing to be afraid of. But understanding their limitations and their usefulness will allow you to start using these AI writing tools for content creation to your advantage! If you really want to improve your writing, don’t look to AI. You can improve your writing with these six practices instead.
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