Blogging is a powerful way to showcase your expertise, attract new customers, and build trust with your existing ones. But writing high-quality, and relevant blogs can be challenging and, more importantly, time-consuming. That’s where AI can step in and lighten the load.
AI, or let’s be honest, LLMs (large language models), are technologies enabling machines to perform tasks which normally require human intelligence, such as understanding language, generating content, and solving problems. This is how AI can assist you in the tedious task of blogging:
Finding topics and keywords: AI can analyze your niche, audience, and competitors, and suggest topics and keywords that are likely to rank well on search engines and resonate with your readers. Doing so much faster than any human could - though there is still some debate on resonating with readers part just yet.
Writing headlines and introductions: AI can craft catchy headlines and captivating introductions which will hook your readers and entice them to read more. For the most part anyway, it will still lack humour, if that’s your goal, and likely a sense of humanity.
Generating content: AI can write original and informative content based on your topic, keywords, and tone of voice. AI can also use data, facts, and sources to support your arguments and add credibility to your blogs. It’s an inarguable fact these models can search out sources and connect the dots far faster than a person.
Editing and proofreading: AI can check your content for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style errors, and suggest corrections and improvements. AI can also optimize your content for SEO, readability, and engagement. And let’s be honest, unless you have an Alisha on your team, then this is welcome help indeed.
All of this can help you write better blogs for your business in less time and with less effort. But how does AI actually write a blog or anything for that matter? And what are the benefits and issues of using AI for blogging?
How AI Writes Blogs
AI writes blogs using a type of technology called natural language generation (NLG). NLG is the process of converting structured data, such as numbers, keywords, or bullet points, into human language. Transforming it all into sentences and paragraphs to ultimately tell a story out of data.
NLG works by using deep learning models, which are complex mathematical algorithms that learn from large amounts of data. These models are trained on millions of texts, such as books, articles, and (of course) blogs. This allows them to learn the patterns, rules, and nuances of natural language, likely better than most people (Again, minus the Alishas of the world!). Then, they can generate new text based on the data they source, based on a couple of sentences you used as a prompt.
One of the most advanced NLG models is called the large language model. LLMs can generate coherent and diverse texts on almost any topic, with minimal human input. LLMs can also adapt to different styles, tones, and formats, depending on the text's context and purpose. Telling it to act as one profession or another and then write as an expert in that field will force it to limit its data and produce results more in line with what you’ll be looking for.
Some examples of LLMs are GPT-4 (the most popular), BERT, and XLNet, which are developed by leading tech companies and research institutes, such as OpenAI, Google, and Carnegie Mellon University respectively. These LLMs are powered by massive amounts of computing resources and data, and are constantly improving and evolving. Remember, the version you are currently using is as dumb as it will ever be again.
The Benefits and Issues of Using AI for Blogging
Using AI for blogging can have many benefits for your business as long as you realize you have to double-check the content and specify things in your prompt. You can even ask AI to ask you questions before it begins to make sure it’s producing what you need. To break it down into a nice numbered list though you can expect AI blogging to benefit you in these ways:
Saving time and money: AI can write blogs faster and cheaper than human writers, allowing you to produce more content in less time and with less budget.
Improving quality and consistency: AI can write blogs that are accurate and engaging, and follow your brand guidelines and tone of voice.
Boosting SEO and traffic: AI can write blogs that are optimized for search engines and keywords, and that attract and retain more visitors to your website.
Enhancing creativity and innovation: AI can write original and unique blogs offering new perspectives and insights on your niche and industry.
It is very important to also consider the problems and perhaps even ethical issues of using AI for blogging. Not to mention its inhuman nature of course, but consider these as reasons to tread carefully:
Lack of human touch and emotion: AI can write blogs that are logical and factual, but not always personal and emotional. AI may not be able to capture the nuances and humor of human language and it certainly can’t replicate the feelings or values of readers.
Risk of plagiarism and ethical issues: AI can write blogs similar or identical to existing texts, which may result in plagiarism and copyright infringement. AI may also write blogs which are biased, misleading, or harmful. It is learning from us after all and this may raise ethical and legal concerns.
Need for human supervision and intervention: AI can write blogs which are coherent and fluent, but not always accurate. It may make mistakes or inconsistencies, or generate irrelevant, or even inappropriate, content. So, as stated above, human supervision and intervention are still necessary to ensure the quality and validity of the blogs.
The Irony of Using an AI to Write a Blog about AI Writing Blogs
You may (or may not) have noticed this blog post was written by an LLM, using a prompt given to the AI. If you noticed, this is an example of how AI writing blogs still needs more time in the oven to fully pull off a Turing test. If you didn’t, then it’s an example of how AI can help you write blogs for your business by generating content relevant to your business. In all honesty, this will vary from person to person, the writers of the world will pick up on it of course, just like artists can spot AI art a mile off. For the most part, it is more than possible for AI to pass imperceptibly by the average reader, especially if you add little human touches here and there - like this sentence for instance.
You may be thinking something though, something pretty important, how can an AI write about something it does not fully understand, or certainly doesn't care about? How can it write about the benefits and challenges of using AI for blogging, when it may not be aware of its strengths and weaknesses? The true irony of using an AI to write a blog about AI writing blogs is that it reveals the paradox of AI: AI is both a powerful tool and a potential threat, a source of inspiration and a cause of concern, a friend and a foe. AI is not human, but it can mimic human language and behaviour. AI is not alive, but it can create and destroy. AI is not conscious, but it can learn and evolve.
It challenges us to think critically and creatively about the role and the future of AI in our society and think deeply about the topic. How can we use AI to enhance and solve problems within our businesses, without losing its humanity and autonomy? Keep that at the very front of your mind as we all integrate these tools into our daily lives and the day-to-day operations of our businesses.
Need Help?
Get in touch to talk about AI, writing, and creative problem-solving and what we can do to help you as real human writers!
Comments