Content writing is one of the most popular jobs in online publishing. It’s also a highly competitive field, where even getting your foot in the door can be difficult. That’s why I was excited to hear that there are now some companies offering services specifically designed for content writers. But what does it mean when you’re competing with an artificial intelligence? Will AI take over all the other writing jobs as well? Or will it just do the work better than humans? And how far away is this from becoming reality?
In the last year or so, we’ve seen several new services designed to help content creators produce more engaging, original, and high quality pieces. The first thing to know about these tools is that they aren’t really content creation tools at all. They’re marketing automation tools. These programs allow users to create great content without having to write any of it themselves.
This means that many of these tools are already being used by businesses who want their employees to churn out content on demand. There are even some startups that provide tools for freelancers to make money by producing content. The problem with these kinds of systems is that they rely on algorithms that don’t understand context, tone, or style. If you give them a few hundred words of text, they’ll come back with a thousand words full of clichés and obvious topics. It’s not that they don’t know how to do the job; it’s just that they lack the ability to recognize good content and replicate it.
So, while it’s true that these tools can save you time, they’re not going to make you a better writer. They’re simply making it easier for you to churn out something mediocre. That doesn’t sound like much of an improvement. What makes content writing so hard is
that there are thousands of ways to express yourself. You could talk about anything: politics, sports, food, cars, movies, music… the list goes on. In order to do this, you need to learn about all of those things. This isn’t easy. Even if you’re able to pick up on the basics quickly enough to get started, you still have to develop your own voice and style.
The best way to explain this is through an example. Let’s say that I’m trying to write a story about my favorite movie theater chain. My goal here would be to write something interesting and unique. What would I include in this piece? How would I phrase it? Would I use metaphors? What kind of tone should I set?
There are literally hundreds of different questions that I’d need to answer before I could start writing. There are dozens of other variables that I could consider, too. Is this article for a local newspaper or a national publication? Are people reading this for entertainment or information? Do they care about me as a person or just want to see what I think about this topic?
You might be wondering how I got this far without realizing that there are so many factors involved in writing. The truth is that I’m lucky. Most people don’t have the opportunity to practice writing in such a variety of contexts. For most people, learning to write well takes years of effort and study. But even then, you can’t always guarantee success.
AI has made it possible for anyone to become a professional writer. All you need is access to data and a computer powerful enough to process it. These conditions are easy to fulfill today. However, AI cannot replace human judgment. An algorithm won’t know what you’re capable of until you tell it.
Final Words
As you’ve seen, AI has already had a huge impact on the world. There are plenty of problems left to solve, but we’ve already made incredible progress. It’s impossible to predict exactly what the future holds, but one thing is certain: the world will never be the same.