AI Can’t Write Like You, No Matter How Much You Train It.

Unless you’re writing crap that no one’s reading, AI can’t help you.

Even after AI, it seems that money *STILL* doesn’t grow on trees. — Source: Midjourney

Look, we’re all guilty of wanting to make life easier.

And when there’s a shortcut sitting right in your face…

OBVIOUSLY you’re gonna try it.

I mean…who WOULDN’T want to feed AI an idea, and have endless Medium articles pop out??!

Sounds like a money tree to me.

Never mind the fact that Medium doesn’t like AI articles… I HAVE to know if I can do 3 hours of writing in 6 seconds.

(Besides, like everyone else, I assume I’m special enough to skirt the system…right?!?)

I spent DAYS training AI to write like me.

So look, I have a pretty distinct writing style.

I curse like a trucker, I think like a mindset coach, and I press enter between my (5th grade reading level) sentences.

My goal is simple — write so you can actually *READ* what I wrote.

Hint: Medium writers — no one wants to read your block of text. PUSH 👏 FRIGGIN’ 👏 ENTER 👏…

ANYWAY…

When it came to training an AI to write like me, my “quirky” writing style means I have more of an uphill climb than say, a newly minted 6th grader with a laptop.

So I whipped out my wallet, and I tried several AI programs that promised they could clone me.

Let’s just say it didn’t go well…

Attempt #1: Training Chat GPT to “Write like me”

We’re using the term “write like me” loosely here because Chat GPT just writes like Chat GPT.

No matter how many times you tell it to stop.

So here’s how this works:

Step 1: Feed Chat GPT your writing sample

I pasted my top article from Medium (which GPT hated because apparently I’m the only human left writing blog articles longer than 500 words…)

So I wound up pasting it in multiple pieces.

Don’t worry, that didn’t seem to confuse Chat GPT *AT ALL* ⬇️

Did I confuse Chat GPT by…following directions?? — Source: my broken Chat GPT

Step #2: Feed Chat GPT MOAR writing samples…

After writing sample #1, I proceeded to feed it 3 more writing samples.

Step #3: See if Chat GPT can write like you…(Spoiler: it can’t)

So I asked Chat GPT to write an intro paragraph for me, based on previous writing samples.

And here’s what it spat out:

Gross car salesman attempt at writing like me. — Source: Chat GPT

I can sum this up in one word:

EW.

So I tried a simpler prompt…Maybe it can handle titles?

Oh look, it’s more NOPE from Chat GPT. — Source: Chat GPT

I can, without a doubt, say that I would read exactly ZERO of those articles.

Alright, maybe we need a PAID AI tool to fix this mess?

Attempt #2: Can TextCortex “Clone Me”?

The next tool I tried was— you guessed it — TextCortex, and it promises to be YOU in your voice:

This tool has some SUPER cool features…

It claims to:

⭐ Answer emails in your voice, based on writing samples you upload. ⭐ Write blog articles using JUST the knowledge from your writing samples. ⭐ Write in your tone which you can set up based on you.

I found about HALF of this to be true.

Basically, it understands what you uploaded…but that’s about it.

So, here’s how it went:

Step #1: Upload writing samples

Because Medium doesn’t allow AI tools to crawl their website, this was, ahem…A LOT.

I had to go into my settings and download some 174 articles.

They downloaded as HTML files. TextCortex needs PDFs.

So I converted 174 HTML files to PDF.

Then I hit my free upload limit on TextCortex — to it’s credit, it took about 20 articles before it freaked out.

Step #2: Choose a template

TextCortex has this really cool feature where you can plug in the knowledge from YOUR articles and get it to respond using that info.

In order to see if it could write in my voice, with my knowledge, I tested it using this template:

Expert Quora Response template in TextCortex

I was expecting it to write in my voice, with the info from my articles, and tell a nice little story to drive my point home.

That wasn’t exactly what I got…

Ok, TextCortex — you’re better than Chat GPT. Credit where credit is due.

Alright, I’ll admit this is LIGHT YEARS better than Chat GPT.

At least it’s READABLE.

But it’s still not in my voice.

In fact, it kinda just…spat out information…

I would still have to re-write EVERY. SINGLE. SENTENCE.

I went back and tried several other templates, paid to add more articles, etc…

But I just got more of the same:

TextCortex, I was rooting for you! Why you gotta break my heart??

Attempt #3: Reword is literally designed for blogging…Surely it’s the one?

Reword is the AI tool I actually kept — but probably not for the reasons you think.

Reword promises to be “the AI trained by you”…

And I was low-key hoping an AI wrote their sales page, because she’s MINT.

(Maybe I should train my AI to write like the reword sales page?)

Please actually do what you say, Reword…

Step #1: Train Your AI Writer

Ok, now we’re cooking with gas!

Reword has you set up a voice first, and it’s FAR more robust than any other process I’ve tried before.

Reword’s AI voice training is delightfully easy…

So I tried to add URLs, thinking “Oh hey, maybe Medium’s AI block won’t apply to me!”

Much lol is this lol. 😂

Obviously, Medium’s AI block was in full effect, and I had to upload PDF’s yet again.

Fortunately, thanks to TextCortex, I just made 174 of them, so I was READY.

Step #2: Test Your Trained Voice

To do this, I created a new draft article.

The process of doing this in Reword is pretty cool.

It tries to guess? outline? seo optimize? — not sure what to call it, but it tries to do all these things the moment you put a title in. ⬇️

What it’s like to set up a draft in Reword

Step #3: Create a draft and ask it to write

Next, you can give it some text, or write from scratch.

I just copy pasted the previous block o’crap that TextCortex gave me.

Then I highlighted the first paragraph, and I asked Reword to “Rewrite in my voice”:

Highlight anything to get Reword’s option box

Step #4: And DRUMROLL PLEASE 🥁

What it wrote was…

Aw, man…Reword — do you think this is what I sound like?

MEH.

My third disappointment in a row.

While internally, I was doing a lot of this:

Whining about AI be like… Source: Made by author in ImgFlip

EXTERNALLY (??) I guess I learned some stuff.

Mainly, AI can’t write like you.

But I did learn that it can keep your brain organized and come up with ideas for you.

I have about 500 article ideas thanks to Reword, all of which are based on my current library:

Topic clusters in Reword are pretty delightful.

I also learned that it can tell me what my readers want, based on Internet searches.

This is Reword’s “deer in headlights” feature — it basically keeps you writing even when you have exactly ZERO idea what to do next. ⬇️

Reword knows I have exactly zero ideas in my head 😂

So I guess that’s cool.

I’m disappointed (and *slightly* honored) that AI can’t seem to replicate me yet.

But I decided to keep Reword for the time being.

Thanks for reading! 🙏

Here’s a little tidbit about the person behind this computer:

I quit my 9–5, started a biz that made $1M in product sales, sold that, and now I’m here to do a thing I won’t ever quit. Thanks for being a part of it!

Fav tools for not giving up here: https://zaap.bio/jenw

Affiliate Disclaimer:

There are affiliate links in this article. I know, I know — this was a weird article to add affiliate links to, considering I liked exactly nothing.

But who knows…maybe the AI can handle your voice better than mine?

The income I make from these affiliate links helps me feed my 5 cats, and generally not feel like a failure. Gotta hustle for all the cats.

If you click one, I may make a small commission at no cost to you.

Basically, clicking these links is like a digital “thank you” that funds my ability to keep writing you articles 😍.