It’s spooky season… though for some of us, especially those who spend a lot of time in local theme parks, it’s been spooky season for a while! Still, it’s not too late to tell a scary story. Today, we’re sharing the dangers of straying too far from human marketing for small businesses in Central Florida.
Running a business isn’t easy. You have to make decisions every day. And every one of those decisions affects your business. And yet… we all get decision fatigue, don’t we? Why not use something that makes things a little bit easier?
Thunder Clap!
The Shortcut Temptation – Avoid the Wrong Turn
You’re sitting at your computer, and it’s time to write a blog. You’ve already had to coach two problem employees today and give a discount to a customer because of their mistakes. In short, you’re tired, and you don’t need one more thing…
What would you even talk about in your blog anyway? Your AI companion is ready.
You’re in a bad mood…that might come across…
It couldn’t hurt just this once, right?
Identity: Who Are You? Even When No One Is Looking?
Successful entrepreneurs don’t get there by skimping and skirting the lines. They get there through grit, perseverance, and the human equivalent of duct tape and paper clips.
There’s something special about that! And that’s probably not the only special thing about you.
Cutting corners by getting AI to write your blogs spits in the face of that ingenuity. There are three main purposes to blogging:
- Deep Diving into subjects you can’t cover on the main pages of your website.
- SEO
- Letting your customers get to know you
Using AI will completely fail you for numbers 2 and 3 and will likely come up short for 1 too.
Wishmaster
Let’s say you ignore my warnings and get AI to write your blog anyway. You make your wish and hope the genie doesn’t do you dirty.
Like a genie, AI will give you exactly what you ask for. It won’t be as good at getting it right and doing it the way you or an experienced marketer would.
And if it senses you want a certain answer, it will give it to you, regardless of whether it’s the right one.
The Thing: What Is AI Really Anyway?
AI has been trained on human creation. Everything it creates is based on previously generated material. Humans also learn from human creation, but there’s a difference. AI creates everything it produces by predicting how the average response would be, given the conditions of its prompt.
It’s impossible to create something with a new viewpoint. By its very conditions, it’s programmed to create an average of what already is.
Consequences of “The Easy Way”
Ok, so if it wasn’t obvious before why AI will create an inferior product, you know now. But do you care? I hope you already do, but if “it’s not good” isn’t enough for you, here’s why you should care.
Repulsion: People Don’t Like It
A cursory glance at the results on your favorite social media platform will reveal a slew of anti-AI vitriol. Some people cry foul at the environmental impact. Others fear the loss or the seeming inevitability of Skynet.
The first two are demonstrably real dangers. The third isn’t yet (but let’s not push it. Some of us were way too young when we saw Terminator 2). But there’s a final reason people don’t like AI writing, especially young people — the quality of the writing itself.
The youngest generation especially are sensitive and critical to AI content, and if you’re using it to have something there, the result will likely not be in your favor.
It Follows that Search Engines Don’t Like It
You know who also doesn’t like AI? Google and its competitors.
Search engines are very good at getting people what they’re looking for. That’s how they make money. So it makes sense they don’t want to show AI content since, as we’ve already established, people don’t want to see it!
So if you’re creating AI content specifically to improve your SEO, you’re making a mistake. It will have the opposite effect.
Frankenstein Images That Don’t Belong to Their Creator
Currently, some of the most dubious uses of AI are in the form of image manipulation. Beyond the ethical issues of using people’s likenesses without permission or for uses they don’t approve of, you also face copyright problems.
You see, when you create an image with AI, you have two potential copyright issues: a) you may be using someone else’s image, and b) you have no ability to copyright AI images, so that anyone can use them.
It’s easy to see how the above can create legal nightmares, but even if we lived in a forever Purge-like world with no laws, AI will create what you ask it to, but that doesn’t mean what it creates will be good.
You may have a lot you want your logo to do. A good marketer will tell you if it’s too much. AI won’t.
Idiocracy (I Realize This Is Technically Not a Horror Movie)
What are the consequences of always taking the easy way out?
I mean, no one makes their clothes by hand anymore, right? Why should we labor to create anything?
Perhaps I’m a purist, but I believe human creativity is sacred. It’s true we’ve mechanized many processes in the modern world (and we can argue about whether that’s a good thing), but what makes us special is our creativity.
I’m not interested in reading an AI article, seeing an AI art gallery, listening to AI music, or watching an AI film.
While I understand the curiosity, it lacks a viewpoint. It lacks a soul.
However, maybe you don’t care about that. So, what about intelligence?
Using tools makes sense, but many people outsource their thinking, and even their relationships, to AI. I can’t find a valid argument that this isn’t a problem.
Is This the Actual Twilight Zone?
AI may be the new kid on the block, but humans know a thing or two about creativity. And the best content marketing takes creativity — not just the average of creativity. So we still recommend (and only use) human marketing for Central Florida small businesses.
If you’re a business owner with a solid reputation that values creativity and wants to preserve your voice in your marketing, give us a call. We want to let people know about you!