With so much news at the moment about the use of artificial intelligence to generate news articles, blog posts and even entire books, you would be entirely within your rights to wonder how much you read on this blog is written by AI and how much is written by a human.
We are proud to say that all the content you read here is created by us. Everything is our honest opinion based on our experience, and it is written in the hope that you, our dear reader, will get some benefit and enjoyment from it.
So What is Wrong with AI-Generated Content?
Nothing really, but there is also nothing much right with it either. As it currently stands, AI-written articles are just algorithmically generated averages. They are superficial at best and don’t have any real substance as they are not based on real experience. Also, the content they generate may seem authoritative, but there is no reason to believe it is based on reality. Ultimately, we believe AI written blog posts feel hollow. To quote Tyler Durden, “Everything is a copy, of a copy, of a copy,“
Do we use AI at all?
Of course! Kirsty and I are not Luddites and are all for better living through technology. For some things, it is incredible! AI sorts our photos, this blog post was largely written by using Google’s voice-to-text technology; AI even proofreads our posts to spot any glaring spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. It undoubtedly has its uses.
We do sometimes use AI as a starting point for a blog post as it can suggest interesting directions to explore that maybe we would not have considered.
Occasionally it can also help us get the wording clearer on things. For example, I recently wrote this for our article on stress free travel with children:
Have you ever taken your kids to Build-A-Bear? If so, you will understand that the reason children are often so attached to the teddies they put together there is because the building process creates a powerful personal bond and a sense of ownership. Your children don’t get that from simply picking a stuffed animal off the shelf.
I was just not happy with it. It seemed that it was something of a “word salad” that failed to get the point over. So I took the above to Chat GPT, and it gave me this:
As a parent, you may have experienced the magic of Build-A-Bear with your children. The reason why kids often form such strong attachments to the teddies they create there is because the process fosters a profound personal connection and a genuine sense of ownership. Your kids don’t just select a stuffed animal off the shelf; they actively participate in bringing their new friend to life.
Much better! The meaning is the same, just the delivery is clearer.
How can you check if something is AI generated?
If you ever wonder if something you’re reading is written by AI, then luckily there are some really good free tools out there that can detect AI generated text instantly. You can copy a link into Writer.com’s AI Checker or copy text in ZeroGPT to find out.
One word of warning, there is a certain cat and mouse game at the moment between the AIs and detectors. Each is developing new ways to detect and remain undetected all the time so keep that in mind!
So there we have it, our honest approach to AI. If you have any questions then please leave a comment below.
