AI Copywriting Is A Tool—Human Touch Is The Creator

For a more neutral, civil, and comprehensive look at the current advantages and disadvantages of ChatGPT, here's a newsletter I released with my client, Got Writer's Block, for anyone interested. I'll try not to repeat (too much of) what I wrote there in this post, but please be advised that I will be much more frank in my anti-stance here.

I write all my own content, whether for myself or my clients; that includes copy, YouTube scripts, and yes, these Vocal blog posts. When applicable, I adapt any specific research by connecting meanings, and credit the sources.

That’s how it’s been since I started my writing career in 2010, and I’ve no intention of changing that.

You might think of me as old school. I’m here to tell you that if we’re to toss out years of mastering this craft in favour of giving AI all the credit, then we’ve truly regressed as a society.

You should be offended that your intelligence, taste, and integrity are being insulted by tools that plagiarize writers, artists, voice actors, and other creators who are responsible for shaping our cultural lexicon. It should bother you that social posts have only gotten more generic, and that entire soulless children’s books and music videos are being produced this way.

Thankfully, people do notice the difference and call users out for not caring nor understanding why creativity matters so much to us as humans.

We are the reason AI is able to function as it does in the first place. It can’t replace the builders of concepts like humanity, character, perspective, opinions, and linguistic variances the same way we do. Anything it generates won’t sound natural, make sense, resonate, intrigue, or teach us in comparison to our persevering artistic and educational endeavours.

Copywriting—and other art forms as well—is not just about selling stuff as quickly as possible. It’s also about connecting with and nurturing communities that crave inspiration to do truly amazing things for our lives and our planet in the long run.

AI doesn’t get that instant gratification from trends is unsustainable. It’s the benefits, experiences, and memories that influence how we live, feel, and act with each generation.

Even if you plan to edit the result after ChatGPT writes it, you’re essentially going be rewriting it for branding or personalization, verifying the information, and (potentially) adding or making changes to it after assessment, so what’s the point? The amount of time work takes to produce shouldn’t be an issue to anyone when there’s little to no difference as long as strategy and awareness are involved.

It doesn't matter how much Google tries to develop this technology; for one thing, Microsoft is already clamouring to beat them out at their own game, and for another, we'll still have to be the content providers and fine tuners for this stuff to even operate as intended. It just sound like irony (aka a waste of time) to me. The fact that one of my regular clients actually switched from AI to my services—without any prompting from me—says something, and I’ve the sneaking suspicion that my case is hardly unique.

Tools like ChatGPT should only ever be used as a last-resort prompt or idea generator, and even that's being charitable in my honest opinion. I sympathize with people who go through writer’s block—who hasn’t?—but that’s why we have hobbies, interests, conversations, choices to make, sights to see, and all other sorts of experiences to help make our writing authentic and insightful. The best part is, you only need at least a couple minutes—one day, tops—out there to ignite that spark somehow.

Think of this as using a treadmill versus going outside for a run. The former can be a good temporary replacement due to weather conditions, construction, or what have you, but it doesn’t have the same health and fitness benefits of outdoor air quality, terrain challenge, wind resistance, and sunlight, among other factors. Whether you like the treadmill more, chances are it won’t be your forever go-to.

And neither will AI. Considering how much new knowledge you gain and create every day, do you genuinely want to waste time with a tool that’ll always be at least a step behind you? Or do you want to make your own step toward something extra-original?