AI is Great for Creating Ideas, and Terrible for Sounding Human

I’ve experimented with different forms of AI to help speed up the process for creating content.   Writing blog posts and creating videos can be very time consuming.  I’ve gotten faster at both since I started doing it, and repetition helps identify short cuts.  The promise of AI keeps me wanting to try ways to help with the process.

But I’ve never landed on anything that I totally love. 

So much so, that for these weekly newsletters, I don’t use AI at all.  I’ll explain why later in the blog post.

Over and over, I’ve tried using different forms of AI for my writing process:

1.      I’ve used Videotoblog.ai.  This AI takes a video, then writes a blog post for you based on the content of the video. 

2.      I record videos on Microsoft Clipchamp.  It has a function that will transcribe my videos into closed captions.  I’ve taken that closed captioning, then tried to convert that script into blog posts.

3.      I’ve used ChatGPT to write blog posts.

4.      I’ve used ChatGPT to edit blog posts.

I know that this isn’t every form of AI.  I’m not a journalist for a technology magazine.  It’s not my job to investigate every new piece of AI.  I’m just a guy that tries to write blogs and record videos that resonate with people.  And I want to share what I think has worked, and what I think has not. 

AI has definitely improved my life, but it hasn’t replaced me, the human. 

I’ve found that AI is good at certain processes.  They are good at listing facts and following rules. 

But everything that AI creates feels sanitized.  Dehumanized.

AI can look human on the outside, but it's not human

When I’ve used AI successfully for content creation, it’s been for the following things:

1.      Creating lists   

I’ll got to ChatGPT and ask it to tell me “What coverage does a florist need?”  It will list out the different insurance coverages that a florist needs.  I need to fact check ChatGPT because it is not a licensed insurance agent and is inclined to make silly mistakes.  But more often than not, it’s pretty close.

2.      Suggesting ideas

Going with the theme on the florist blog post, I can ask ChatGPT, “Can you give me 10 different blog post ideas for what coverage does a florist need?”

Chat GPT will then spill out 10 ideas for blog post ideas faster than I could ever dream up those ideas.

3.      Creating templates for blog posts

Now that ChatGPT has told me what a florist needs and given me an idea for a blog post, I can ask ChatGPT to write that blog post.

The structure of that blog post will be excellent.  Mechanical, but excellent. 

I find that I have used some of these templates repeatedly for informational blog posts because they are so logical, and they help with the flow of the article.  For example, I might have on template “Everything (This Industry) Needs to Know about Auto Insurance”.  I will use the same repeatedly but change out the guts of the blog post to customize it for the target industry.

4.      Editing my writing for clarity

Once I’ve finished writing something, there are usually blue squiggly lines all over my Microsoft Word Document.  When ideas come out, they come out kind of ugly.  And I find editing my own work to be incredibly challenging.  It’s hard to be objective with your own work.

Chat GPT can take that word document full of blue squiggly lines and make them go away in a matter of seconds.

It’s amazing.

But no matter how many variations of AI I use, I always find that if I let AI be the final edit, the final product feels dehumanized. 

The work product will be crystal clear.  It will be grammatically perfect.  But it will leave the reader with the same feeling as talking to a chat bot.

That’s because ChatGPT takes out all of my weird grammatical quirks.  It eliminates unnecessary adverbs.  It takes my run-on paragraphs and separates the thoughts out into bullet points.

It takes my personal anecdotes out of the articles.

It does the same things for every article, every time. 

Basically, it sanitizes the humanity out of my work product.

It’s so good at sanitizing my writing, I’ve stopped using any form of AI for my weekly newsletters.  These newsletters are intended to be a little emotional.  I write about my flaws, my struggles, my internal monologues, and what I’m learning.  These are things that computers don’t understand.

I’m happy to use AI for my informational blogs.  Those blogs are written to inform.  I want them to be clear, concise, and direct.

But if I want people to resonate with what I’m writing on an emotional level, I find that I have to either leave AI out of the process, or make sure that I have final edit.  Because if I don’t have final edit, AI will take everything out of the article that feels distinct and imperfect. 

Basically, it will remove me from the writing.

And if there is anything I’ve learned from writing consistently for several years, people engage with content to engage with the people behind the content.  Even if they’re reading to learn something, they resonate more if they believe they have something in common with the writer.

People want to feel connected to other people.

Chat GPT is not human.  It will take out all your human identifiers.

Use AI to accelerate your work.  Not to replace you.