The new AI language system Chat GPT has been the talk of the internet since its release in November 2022. To put it in perspective, Instagram took 75 days to get to one million users – Chat GPT got there in just five days.

To give you the full lowdown on this groundbreaking new tool, our Campaign and Insights Manager, Clark Chapman, has been taking Chat GPT for a test drive…

What is Chat GPT?

Chat GPT (short for Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer) is an artificial intelligence system that uses large language model sets to provide original material for users.

It’s a pretty impressive tool in terms of AI, as it interacts with the user in a conversational tone, and produces a wide spectrum of original work (more on this later…) that can be used across numerous industries.

The tool was developed by Open AI, a project with many backers (including Elon Musk) which has also received a £1bn investment from Microsoft.

What does Chat GPT do?

Now you know what it is, let’s look at what it can actually do. This is where things get really interesting! Chat GPT creates original material through its research from across the web and human conversations.

Whether you are looking to woo your partner with a romantic poem or cook them a wonderful meal, Chat GPT has you covered. In fact, I asked for a poem about cars in the style of Oscar Wilde. I think the Irish wordsmith would be amazed by its original effort:

Chat GPT’s developers have created a system that has the ability to challenge the intent of your search - if you ask it for advice about how to undertake any illegal or ethically questionable activities, it will not provide this information.

As well as Oscar Wilde automobile poetry, it can provide an array of blog title ideas or even write the blog itself with enough information. It’s also great for producing summaries of podcast episodes or long articles.

I was recently listening to a Freakonomics podcast episode about the renowned economist Adam Smith (well, we’ve all got to do something at the weekend) and I took a chunk of the transcript and dropped it into the chatbox. This is the 5-point summary it produced:

However, despite all these cool features, there is one that I believe will be the greatest legacy of the current system, and that’s the code-fixing abilities. If you are having some issues with a website, simply paste the code into the chat box. Basic code issues can be dealt with in a matter of seconds.

What can’t Chat GPT do?

Thankfully for anyone reading this and worrying that The Matrix has finally arrived, Chat GPT has its limitations. For starters, it is useless for any up-to-date news. Upon asking, it still thinks Boris Johnson is the Prime Minister of the UK. This is because the model has learned from information only up to around July 2021.

Content created in Chat GPT tends to sway towards a positive tone, as I believe it tries to mitigate against creating negative or toxic content. This could prevent copy from being fair and balanced.

How will Chat GPT affect digital marketing?

As Campaigns and Insights Manager at a digital marketing agency, I naturally started to think about the impact this tool will have. There have been tweets calling it the end of Google search as we know it.

Well, if I know Google, they are not going down without a fight! Before we go into the impact, it’s important to understand the difference between Google and Chat GPT. Whereas Google crawls the web and presents information from the websites, Chat GPT has researched the internet and developed new content based on this website, just like a human would do.

So, despite the technological capabilities of this tool, the current Google search engine provides us with websites, which act as legitimate sources. The problem with Chat GPT is that you’ve still got to cross-check everything as we don’t know the exact source of the information it provides.

As the tool develops, I think it will be used more in the research process and to help with creative ideas. However, it will become part of our toolkit, rather than replacing digital marketers themselves.

Take a minute to read the Google Webmaster Guidelines because as it currently stands, Google does not allow AI-produced content to be included in its search result pages. So, before you run off to create a bunch of new website pages for Google to crawl using Chat GPT, be very careful as these types of violations can have a major impact on the credibility of your website and negatively impact the ranking of other pages on the site.

Does Chat GPT mean the end for copywriters?

At Sookio, we’ve previously discussed whether AI could one day replace copywriters, arriving at the conclusion that when it comes to written content, human input will always be required.

There has been mass hysteria on Twitter about job displacement and other such issues in the wake of the release of Chat GPI to the public. The bottom line: whilst this can be a useful summary tool, you still need skilled writers to look at the work and make sure the structure is right.

The more detailed the question, the better the answer - Chat GPT doesn’t like vagueness, which means the art form of asking the right question will become more and more important!

As these AI tools develop, the role of the copywriter may change but will be more crucial than ever in the continued fight against an internet awash with inaccurate content.

What is the future of Chat GPT?

The tool is currently free to use, but as we know, eventually it will be monetised in some way. This will likely be done by providing tech and other companies help with customer service and research support.

On a wider scale, Chat GPT has opened the discussion around how we regulate and manage AI content. One option I’ve heard about is watermarking AI-generated content. This would be a general standard written into AI tools like Chat GPT to ensure that search engine crawlers can recognize this straight away.

AI crawlers searching for AI-watermarked content, with minimal human involvement – maybe we have entered The Matrix after all…

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