How NOT to Use AI for Writing

Ever since ChatGPT launched, it seems like writers and the craft of writing have lost their value.

There have been clickbait headlines on how Google is dead, writing is dead, and writers will lose their jobs.

However, recently, ChatGPT has lost a number of subscribers for the third time in a month. And even on paid platforms for content generation (think Jasper, Copy.ai, and others), the forums are full of people complaining that they cannot get these tools to produce the content they need.

The issue lies in a few factors:

• A content generator cannot replace a knowledge of what makes writing good in the first place. And this is true whether we’re talking about content writing, story writing, or news writing.

• When it comes to original insights and writing about niche information, the best that AI can do is rephrase or rewrite your writing. Talk about double work! AI writing assistants are supposed to make your life easier, not harder.

  
  

When all is said and done, though, there are right ways and wrong ways to use AI for writing.

You can use AI to make your writing better and be more productive. But you can also use it to double your work and get rejected from publications that do not care for AI-generated content.

Let’s look at ways NOT to use AI for writing.

And in the process, you’ll learn the best practices for making it work.

Use AI-generated content without editing

For many who struggle to write, it can seem like AI is almost miraculous in terms of how human the content can sound.

However, that’s only at a surface level. Once you start reading the content carefully, you’ll notice small things like how certain phrases and terms are repeated, how sentence and paragraph structures also turn into noticeable patterns, or how generic the content is.

You also want to watch for tones when editing. When you ask AI to create blog posts for you without a clear command or prompt, you typically get content that sounds formal. The paragraph and sentence structures might be elaborate, and you might get jargon in your content.

One workaround is to give the right prompts and ask for a conversational or reader-friendly tone of voice.

But you also need to get into the weeds and edit everything and make it sound better.

Don’t Sound Like You

Another matter to think about is whether AI-generated writing even sounds like you.

No matter how good AI gets, your communication style remains unique and hard to replicate.

You should use AI to handle simple things like conclusions, calls to action, and anything else that doesn’t need a personal touch.

However, you don’t want to lose what makes your content so different and original - your special brand and tone of voice.

While editing your writing, ask yourself how you’d say this information to a friend.

The phrasing, the choice of words, examples, and so on are what will make your work resonate with your audience. So, don’t forget to make any AI content you use sound like you.

Do Your Research

Another way to make poor use of AI is to accept everything it generates as factual.

People often use AI to create content about matters that need verification from trusted sources and authorities.

While you can use AI to write about information that’s generic, common sense, or self-evident, you must be careful when talking about health, finances, factual information, and so on.

Always run your own check to make sure that the data you use is based on solid research and verified information.

By taking the time to check your content, you avoid getting negative feedback in case the AI generates false information.

Use AI to Replace Not Enhance

As someone whose business runs on content marketing, I know about the power of good content.

I know that AI can be misused, but so can social media, email marketing, and other technology that disrupts.

What you don’t want to do with AI is to have it replace your personal efforts entirely. But rather use it to enhance your writing.

Today, there are a dozen or so writing assistants that offer a variety of features. Some of them have truly powerful tools that can take your content to the next level if you know how to use them.

For example, QuillBot and Wordtune have setups where you can have them add a counterpoint, add an analogy, an example, and so on.

Such enhancements are only good for helping your reader get more value. The trick is to treat AI as a means to improve your writing, not replace it altogether.

The moment you try to replace real writing with AI is when your content becomes uninspiring, uninteresting, and the opposite of helpful - and remember, Google wants you to write helpful content to rank on its Search Engine Results Page.

Don’t Learn the Basics of Content Marketing

Too many influencers and success gurus sell AI as this catch-all tool to end the need for hard work, deep learning, and the fundamentals of marketing.

And many people will learn, with trial and error, that it’s hardly the case.

If you want AI to work for you, you need to know what you want to get out of it.

For people who want to grow their business, boost their career, or achieve their goals in any way, they still need to understand marketing and content marketing in particular.

This covers doing topic research, researching what you want to say, knowing how to structure your writing, and then writing it down into its final form.

And even then, there’s editing and distributing your work to the right people to create the most impact.

There needs to be a solid understanding of marketing: what your goal is, who you want to reach, and how best to do it.

And when you learn the basics, you’ll be more effective in generating the right content via AI.

Over to You

AI writing assistants are here, and it’s smart to use them.

It is NOT smart to use them as is.

And this is why you should learn about the different tools there are and about marketing concepts to know how to get the best out of AI.

You’ll give better prompts and, as a result, get improved writing that actually helps people.