AI Replacing Writers? I’m Not Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf

Sure, it may huff and puff and try to blow the house down for writers, but this little piggy didn’t build her house of straw. For writers who’ve been in this game a while, we all know there’s nothing to fear. In the end, high quality content rises to the top and AI isn’t ready to compete. It lacks that something that helps people connect to it, including reliable research.

I’m not saying ChatGPT and other AI writing tools aren’t useful. In fact, I’ve seen quite a few writers using the tools for inspiration to push past writer’s block. Or, they have a pushy client with an impossible deadline and use AI to write a quick post that they go back and polish to make it presentable.

What I’m saying is it’s not the big bad wolf out to blow away everything you’ve worked hard to build.

Living Through the Google Panda Update

If just hearing the words “Google Panda” makes you cringe, you know exactly what I mean. I had been a content writer for around four years when the notorious Google Panda update swept through and changed content writing and SEO forever.

The problem was many reputable sites got hit hard. The goal was to target content farms that tended to have a lot of low quality, keyword stuffed, and misleading content. Of course, content farms weren’t the only target. Any website that used repetitive keywords, too many links, and a lot of affiliate marketing got pushed to the bottom of the search results.

Overnight, new SEO guides popped up everywhere to help sites recover as quickly as possible.

Despite having content on a few of the content farms targeted by Google Panda, the majority of my content still fought its way back to the top of search results because I didn’t use any of the shady techniques such as keyword stuffing and misleading or empty content like many other writers on those sites used. That’s why I kept earning, while many of my fellow writers stopped writing entirely.

Real Content Skips the Shady Shortcuts

Sure, you can use all kinds of tools and techniques to save time. But, it’s the shady shortcuts that ultimately destroy the content. I think we’ve all come across writers pumping out endless content and bragging about how much they make.

Now, take a look at that content. It’s often just fluff and a push to buy some temporarily discounted course that teaches you how to magically type a few words and make millions in just a week. It’s content likely created by the same people who took the same type of courses. Honestly, it just turns into a bad pyramid scheme of everyone creating the exact same thing, but only the first few people in on the game every made any real money.

My point is real content — not copy and paste, plagiarized, or AI generated — is what people crave. At the end of the day, that’s what ultimately ranks because people spend more time reading it and sharing it with others.

Start throwing in shady shortcuts and calling it original or useful leads to shorter read times and readers starting to distrust the creators.

A Long Way To Being Respected

AI generated content still has a long way to go before it’s respected. Sure, it’s impressive, but while the concept is respected, the output isn’t. Just look at the reactions on Medium when someone says their content was created with an AI generator. Even if the content is good, you immediately distrust it. You question whether the human writer did any real work or even verified the data. Is that fair? Who knows.

However, many ghostwriting and copywriting agencies, educational institutions, and even entire countries are banning the use of AI content tools.

Despite Google unveiling their own AI tools, which were reportedly built upon ChatGPT without authorization, John Mueller publicly stated AI is against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Of course, right now, every tech giant wants in on the AI race, which could be AI’s downfall.

Then, you have to consider legality. As The Verge points out, what’s the difference between downloading a music file on Napster that was shared by someone who legitimately purchased the album and using an artist or writer’s work to train AI and churn out similar works.

Be honest, would you think it’s fair for someone to upload your books or artwork, use them to train an AI program, and then see your work essentially copied by millions without getting a dime or even acknowledgement in return? No, you’d be pissed.

Useful But Never A Replacement

AI definitely has its uses. For instance, in the medical field, a doctor could input symptoms and instantly get a list of every possible illness related to those symptoms. Of course, it’d be ridiculous to rely on AI to fully diagnose someone. But, that’s the point. AI is a useful tool, but not a replacement.

As a writer, I’ve kept up with how AI-based writing has evolved. I’m impressed with how well much of the content is written. Yet, in most cases, I’ve been able to pick out weird things here and there and often see factual errors.

But, as a writer, I’ve also tried several different AI tools just to see for myself how they work. I’ve found them incredibly useful creating outlines or to get new ideas for content.

If I’m going to have to put work in to edit someone AI creates, verify all the facts, and spruce it up to ensure it’s an original work, why not just write it myself?

I think relying on AI to write your content for you and passing it off as your own is about as smart as watching a video on YouTube about brain surgery and claiming you’re a brain surgeon. Eventually, the audience will discover you’re a fraud and that’ll be it.

As a final note, remember this. AI must be trained. This requires human-created content. If everything becomes AI generated, content becomes stagnant. Forget about new trends, innovative new concepts, original ways of thinking, and so on.

Plus, no one is verifying whether everything AI is fed is accurate. Just like most Google searches may give you a few good results and then a bunch of “this result seems good enough even though it’s completely irrelevant,” AI could very well do the same and you’d never know.

My advice — stop being afraid of AI. Use it as helpful tool, much like Grammarly or a dictionary and thesaurus. If you’re willing to grow as a writer and put in the effort to understand your audience, AI won’t replace you.

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