Embracing AI Is Painful But Necessary!

Ever since I was 17 I worked in creative industries. I started with writing. Some might already know the story but I wrote some travel blog articles about Norway fjords. And it was fantastically rewarding for me in a world that was pushing for me to go into science-based professions. 

Over the years I wrote tens of millions of words. Sometimes it was easy, sometimes it was freakin’ hard. 

Now we have ChatGPT and Claude (among countless others) writing 1,000 words about whatever you want with near-to-perfect spelling and grammar in seconds. 

Can writers really compete with that?

Yes they can! But this is not the point. 

The State Of The Internet

Here’s one thing that most people do not realize:

The majority of content on the internet is straight up TRASH!

The harsh truth is that AI writes better in ANY type of writing than most people out there. 

Writing seems simple so across the year there were hundreds of thousands of people who appeared and started writing online. And, as years passed, articles got worse and worse. I am not even talking about personal blogs. I am talking about top publications from around the world. 

In an attempt to save money and pay writers less and less, quality went down the drain. 

Right now the internet is filled with trash. Articles are bad, reviews are horrible, editorials are in reality political pieces, journalists sold their soul to billionaires, almost everything is low quality. 

Enter ChatGPT

Let’s not discuss the early stages of artificial intelligence since they were definitely not memorable. Let’s talk about how it is now. 

AI changed the game in so many industries. And the truth is that the biggest impact it had came through writing. For a regular site owner, instead of staying hours or maybe even a day to conduct the research needed and write, everything is ready in minutes. This includes publishing the article. Add AI image generators to the mix and you can realistically create a VERY good comprehensive article about anything in 30 to 60 minutes. Including adding internal links, external links, images, and arranging formatting. Everything you have to do. 

Does this take away from writers?

Yes and no. 

Let’s Talk Hollywood

The best example I can give is what happened in the movie industry. The Writer’s Guild of America went on strike in 2023. Other similar strikes followed. Why? Because AI started to take away writing jobs. 

There are many things to discuss but the jist of it all is that movies started to be written with AI. And it worked. People still watched, money was made. 

But art was lost. 

Look at the movies launched in the past few years. Most of them are straight up bad. 

Then, we have the INCREDIBLE hot TV series at the moment called Heated Rivalry. It has perfect writing. Something AI will most likely never be able to replicate because it comes from deep emotions and things that you cannot teach a language learning model. 

Good writing stands out and what many do not want to admit is that most writing on the internet especially and even in books before and after ChatGPT was not good writing. Most was mediocre at best. 

And ChatGPT is more than capable of creating mediocre and above-level writing. 

Even Good Writers Use AI

Now for an uncomfortable truth: AI cannot be stopped. And it forced people to change, adapt.

Writers lost their jobs but what many do not understand is that the good ones did not. Some got pay cuts but they can grow back and maybe even get paid more. This is because AI cannot create very good content. It is limited. Humans are not. 

Really good writers understood the advantages that came with AI. Instead of having to spend months on research, you can now do it in days tops. Sure, everything needs to be checked since ChatGPT loves to invent things, but it is a lot faster to check than to search. 

Do you want to write a book about the Victorian Era? ChatGPT will give you hundreds of pages of information you can use to learn. Do you want to learn SEO? You can do it on your phone. 

I am not even going to touch on the fact that it can help with overcoming writer’s block. Even if it does sound like a robot, it helps brainstorm and come up with ideas. Just ask something creative and then tell it “more”. Then “more” again. Eventually you will notice you start to think and you come up with things based on this help. 

The point is AI is a tool and it can be used to help. Why go to a library when you can get the book in your browser? Or a resume? Or meteorological data for Paris in August 1995? (Just always make sure you double check).

Embracing AI

Back to personal!

I hated AI when it appeared. The hate came from the bottom of my heart. Writers were going to lose their jobs. 

But…

I realized this wasn’t really the case at the top levels. 

I am working at a firm that basically relies on content creation. And you know what? We have several editors, writers, video editors, and so on. Do they use AI? Yes! Do they create everything with AI? NO!

I cannot go into details but this company had a profit of tens of millions of dollars last year. This year it will be even more. Did they fire anyone? NO! Did they bring in new people? YES! Close to 100 more. Why? Because they rely on using tools to improve their business, not replace people. 

If you want a movie script that is trash, use AI. If you want one that is good, you hire a real writer. And that writer can use AI tools to improve his writing, make it better, write faster. 

You might not like it.

But…

You HAVE to use AI tools to stay competitive. The trick is to use it to create BETTER content, not mass content.