What Are the Risks of Using AI for Blogging?
Published on 11th July 2023
AI (Artificial Intelligence) has shaken the content writing industry and since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, more writing tools powered by AI are entering the marketplace, like Bard, Jasper, Oneflow and most recently, Writesonic.
There’s no doubt these tools are capable of writing all manner of content for you. But there are multiple questions about the use of artificial intelligence for blogging. Using AI brings plenty of advantages but there are also risks that you need to be aware of.
What are AI writing tools and how does it work?
Currently, in the UK alone, around 15% of businesses have adopted AI technology; that’s 432,000 companies using at least one AI tool. The marketing business sector is the fourth highest industry using AI platforms, and that figure could be even higher if you take into account those who work on a freelance basis as well. So, let’s look at the basics:
AI is a form of human intelligence manipulated by computers and combined with machine learning to be able to produce enormous amounts of data and mimic an outcome. It is designed to think and act like a human, including communication and making decisions.
AI-generated content is content that has been ‘written’ by an AI algorithm and presented using natural language processing (NLP) and natural language generation (NLG) technology.
The AI algorithm searches millions of data on the internet that matches the topic or question typed into the tool, then puts it together to give you a completed blog or article (or any other form of content requested).
But one thing you must remember with AI-generated content is that it’s generic and has limitations.
Advantages of AI for blogging
The use of AI for blogging has increased tenfold over the last six months, and it has its advantages, including:
Speed. There is no doubting AI's speed in generating content. Its power in sourcing all the relevant information it needs from the internet and creating a blog takes seconds. It is far quicker than humans, even if they are experts in a particular topic or subject.
Scalable. Just by its design, AI is genuinely scalable; some say, indefinitely.
Cost-effective. Most AI tools offer a free version and a subscription option for people who want to make the most of all its capabilities. The bonus is that subscriptions are usually per month and are not that expensive, compared to a writer's cost per word, per 100 words, or blog.
Targeted. Using AI tools to generate content allows you to target specific geographical areas, consumer profiles, and behavior.
No more writer's block. This is a crucial reason many writers have succumbed to AI tools for blogging. With the pressure to produce so much content, and varied blogs at that, writers will experience times when their minds' block' their creative skills.
Saves time. AI algorithms can produce thousands of words quickly without needing research or writing. Meaning businesses can focus on other areas of running the company, and content producers can deliver more content in a shorter time frame.
On-point grammar. Because it's machine-generated, most AI-generated content will be grammatically correct, i.e., no spelling mistakes and correct grammar. Although, this does depend on which AI tool you are using and whether or not you have a subscription.
But no matter how good AI-generated is, it could be better.
Disadvantages of using AI for blogging
As with most things in life, there are disadvantages to using AI to generate blog content, including:
Inaccuracies. The content generated is only as good as the source it comes from. Recently, some AI tools have created inaccurate content, which has caused some alarm. Indeed, there are concerns that the more AI-generated content there is in the public space, there is likely to be an increase in inaccuracies in time. This is because the algorithm will be searching its own content, whether it was accurate or not.
Plagiarism. Because AI tools rely on their algorithms to generate the content and, therefore, pull together information from a variety of sources to ‘write’ the blog, not only could the tool be ‘parroting’ existing online content, it could also fall foul of Googles ‘stitching and combining content’ guidelines. This also impacts the quality of the content, which could ultimately have a detrimental effect on your SEO activity.
Devalues content. In August 2022, Google released their ‘helpful content update’ which states that it should be ‘helpful content written by people, for people’. The update also points out that ‘a search engine crawler looks for content from humans, providing a more cohesive and satisfying practice with SEO’. Essentially, Google is suggesting that unique, human-written content will rank higher than AI-generated content.
Little to no creativity. AI is a computer science and whilst it is capable of mimicking humans, it is no match for a human’s ability to be creative and generate new ideas (yet!). It will also struggle in recognising the latest trends or topics and building content around them. The problem comes in that the more creative and engaging the blog, the more likely people are to read it, share it, feel connected with it and react to it. Essentially, AI does not have the capability to create a story that will connect emotionally with its reader.
Lacks personalisation. Although some AI tools can be used to identify certain behaviours and build that into the content, it will still struggle to truly personalise it to the level expected by consumers. Because AI relies on content that already exists, it isn’t able to identify user intent or common sense behaviour.
Many people who are experienced in creating content and writing blogs in the traditional way have found that they can’t rely on AI-generated content. There is often the need to read it through, check for quality and errors, add creativity and personalisation, and even add more content. This begs the question: is it worth using AI writing tools?
AI may be a useful tool for research, producing short content and overcoming writer’s block, but it’s not ready to replace the human mind, yet!
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