Curatti

Why You Shouldn’t Consider Using ChatGPT To Write Blog Posts

  • Alice Elliott

    • The rise of Open Source AI has gotten many businesses to rub their hands with glee. Perhaps we can do away with expensive content writers, and focus on using ChatGPT to write blog posts for us instead?

    I can certainly see how his automation could be valued as an advance in technology. Here is a programme that churns out readable content in a twinkling of an eye. All that is needed is to insert the relevant information, and woah! – everything is instantly ready for use.

    However, my suggestion is this is bad news. There is no way I would suggest Curatti start investing in substituting its guest bloggers for ChatGPT – perish the thought! There are various elements that need to be considered first: quality, uniqueness, accuracy, good editing, and EEAT.

    EEAT: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness

    So before you give your resident blogger notice, spare a thought for what the implications might be if you are considering using ChatGPT to write blog posts for you.

    Brainstorming and Research

    One thing AI is good at is generating information at speed. This certainly beats the wearisome task of trawling through search engine results on a particular idea (or even keyphrase, if you have got that far!). Not everything will be valid, relevant or even useful, and skim-reading through the content to find what you need takes up time.

    Why not ask ChatGPT to do this for you?! Yes, it could, and certainly it is an excellent programme to bring up brainstorming ideas, not to mention (supposedly) relevant research material.

    Now I have put ‘supposedly’ in brackets because you can’t rely on ChatGPT for relevancy, accuracy, and, above all, uniqueness. I still prefer to do my own research by scanning and referencing what is delivered by Google (other search engines are available), because I know what I am looking for and what would be appropriate for my post.

    Relying on ChatGPT to deliver the goods, especially if you are not on top of the subject and everything is new to you, can be a dangerous affair. I know there are plenty of ‘bloggers’ who have been tasked to write a post about something they know very little about. This shows up in what they produce. Unfortunately, what ChatGPT offers for their (probably) inadequate search term may not disguise the lack of knowledge they have on the subject.

    Uniqueness and Plagiarism

    The process of using ChatGPT to write blog posts means it will invariably churn out similar information to many recipients. You do not know how often it does this, and over time, with more people using ChatGPT to write blog posts, a lot of content may start to look very similar.

    Now I’m sure Google et al are on top of this. They will be aware of those who declare a lack of time to write original stuff, or are under pressured strategies to produce something quickly to appease a tyrannical boss, will take advantage of ChatGPT. This isn’t just for blog posts, but for any content online: sales pages, Home and About pages descriptions, newsletter content – I’m sure you could think of many more examples.

    But it is the unawareness of this generated content being posted willy-nilly (to use a British phrase), sometimes without any editing, throughout the web which may cause problems. Unintentional plagiarism may be rife, unless people rigorously run content through appropriate plagiaristic systems to prevent this. I am imagining smoke rising from over usage as they constantly highlight similarities in online content generated by Open Source AI programmes.

    An algorithm doesn’t possess the power to write a different slant on a subject the way a human can. All it has to hand is the data that has been fed into it. It may look convincing, especially since ChatGPT writes in a ‘human-like’ way, but it can’t deliver your nuances, your turn of phrase, or your individualism, which sets you apart as a real, bona fide human.

    Accuracy and EEAT

    The algorithm in ChatGPT will have only been programmed with data from 2021 (certainly so at the time of writing). Thus what it churns out may not be relevant to today. Trends and technology move at such an alarming rate, unless AI is able to keep up, what it produces will soon be out of date.

    If you want to maintain your status as a go-to expert within your niche or industry, you need to keep on top of the latest facts. Also, you need to be able to understand and interpret them in your own way, laced with your point of view, to fuel your reputation and encourage your following readership to engage.

    This all contributes towards EEAT (experience, expertise, authority, and trust). Search engines will use these criteria to determine human versus AI-generated content, combined with authorship, location, longevity, relevance and consistency of writing about the topic in question.

    Using ChatGPT to write blog posts for you cannot guarantee enough criteria to satisfy EEAT. What is produced may look convincing, but where is the alternative viewpoint, phrased in a different way? Even if ChatGPT content is sufficiently edited, this cancels out the time it was supposed to save, so you might as well have written your blog post using the old-fashioned methods anyway!

    Is It Worth Considering Using ChatGPT to Write Blog Posts For You?

    In spite of posts like this, lovingly created by a human without any bots in sight, the temptation of Open Source AI will always be a draw. Good content writers are not easily come by and can be expensive to hire. They are not as compliant, available, or easily moulded as a programme that gushes out an editorial solution once you’ve pressed Go.

    But it is worth stopping and thinking about your position within the blogging world. As a writer, you want to be recognised for your original thought, writing style, and ability to communicate with your readers. Extra resources such as writing for SEO can easily be taught. Practice makes perfect. You have the ability to adapt and learn (maybe not as fast as AI), but in a relevant and all-encompassing way that benefits who you are writing for.

    Nothing you produce will be the same. You won’t be ‘churning’ out any old rubbish to keep your colleagues happy. It may not happen in grease lightening like an algorithm, but you can guarantee the quality, accuracy, originality, editorial prowess, and its eligibility for EEAT.

    And businesses, avoid being blind-sided by technology. Sure it’s quick – instant results at a press of a button. But use this to help, aid, and guide your writers rather than supersede them. Take advantage of its ability to brainstorm, but adapt it to fit what is needed. View the research with a pinch of salt, as a launch into what else is possible. Embrace the instinctiveness of humans, which may feel overpowered by AI, but at the end of the day, will soon be able to acknowledge their superiority.

    Wrapping Up

    Let us know in the comments below what you think of this. This is a pursuit humans can do well – write comments! Show us what you are capable of, and that it is not a good idea to think of using ChatGPT to write blog posts over human content writers.

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    Alice Elliott

    Alice Elliott (aka Fairy Blog Mother) is an award winning blogger who has been "explaining things really simply" about blogging since 2006. She is also founder of The Commenting Club created to educate the benefits of commenting, engagement and interaction to individuals and businesses.