You should pay me for content that I haven’t thought about or written
Yes, you read that right. But don’t worry, I don’t mean it one little bit. Earlier this year I wrote a blog about the emergence of AI in the writing realm, namely ChatGPT. But you’ll likely be aware that there are now thousands, if not tens of thousands, of AI programmes that work in a similar way across a plethora of disciplines.
I had a conversation recently which drove it home for me: if we want to believe the things that are being shown to us, sent to us, shared with us, we’re going to need some humanistic proof. In some cases that might be actually showing up to events so that we know they actually happened. (Not a bad idea for the live music scene, for which I am a keen advocate!) It’s a little more difficult for written content. At the moment I think it’s quite easy to spot copy that has been generated by AI without any human intervention. But, like any other newly introduced tools or ways of life, we humans will become conditioned to this style and at the same time the style will become more and more sophisticated as it learns more about the ways people communicate… which will be influenced by AI in the not too distant future… and lo’ and behold we have a cycle on our hands. This is otherwise known as the evolution of language. Watch out.
So back to the headline which I wrote to catch your attention. If you’ve read this far, it worked.
When I opened my laptop this morning there was an email about a new release from the website platform I use — Squarespace. It was announcing its new blog feature whereby you can now get Squarespace’s own AI tool to generate written content for you, after punching in a few prompts, and then you can add a paywall to your blog so that people can pay to read this blog (which you haven’t written) and thus create a passive income.
In other words… it’s promoting the notion that you should pay me for content that I haven’t thought about or written myself.
I am so not OK with this. For a couple of reasons.
I am already challenged by the notion of AI generated copy (not to mention videos and photos!). I see it everywhere and it turns me off. It makes me think businesses and brands don’t care about the ways they’re engaging with their audiences, who — by the way — are the ones paying for your ability to have a viable business in the first place. To use an analogy, I personally feel that AI generated copy is like the plastic of the written world. Everyone’s excited about the new technology, it’s so dynamic and functional, it saves time and money, and there are a few naysayers on the outskirts thinking it’s a terrible idea. (Hi, that’s me.) But give it a few years, and watch how it infiltrates our world to the point where it’s damaging and all-encompassing… and we don’t know what to believe or how to make it better. Shudder.
What exactly should people be paying for if someone has used AI to generate a blog that they have had no hand in writing other than putting forward a couple of vague prompts? The whole idea of this is just ludicrous. It insults the intelligence of people and it devalues the businesses who dare to dive into this murky world because it’s dishonest. My top tip to avoid paying for AI written content is simple… type the blog headline into ChatGPT as a prompt and you’ll end up reading the same content… FOR FREE! But also don’t forget that it’s just waffly information that you’d be able to find — and apply your brain to — if you used your own wise self to do the do.
This idea is also a big middle finger to the thousands of bloggers who have built up a name for themselves and successfully introduced a paywall to have their subscribers pay for content that they have actually written and actually thought about. Will they be left with no choice but to join the AI revolution? I sincerely hope not. I hope they are on the same side of the fence as me on that matter.
Let me round this teeny AI rant up by saying this. Whether it’s written copy or photos or video, it’s never been so important to question things in front of us! I remember in university while studying media and communications, being taught that questioning what was written in the media was a good, well-rounded, open-minded human thing to do. Back then we had no need to worry about robots but the advice still stands.
And you have my word: I will never ask my clients to pay for content that I have not written or thought about myself.