There is a lot of hype at the moment about Chatbots driven by Artificial Intelligence or AI. In the news and social media are ChatGPT by OpenAI, and it’s competition, Bard by Google. “They will take over the world!” some say. How far is their potential has yet to be seen but taking over the world is perhaps a bridge too far.

To put in simple terms, AI driven chatbots use natural language processing (NLP), a process that gives computer the ability to understand words similar to how humans do and then to respond accordingly. They are trained, using both guided and automated processes, on large language models (LLMs) to understand not just human language but also human knowledge. That is how AI driven chatbots have the ability to answer questions put to it in a seemingly intelligent and coherent manner.

So let’s put this to test. I asked an AI writer to write an article titled ‘AI Bots on AI Blogs‘. Here is the result. Just to avoid speculation, it is not using ChatGPT.

AI Bots on AI Blogs

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of our lives. From social media platforms to self-driving cars, AI is creeping into every part of our lives. Most importantly, the technology is helping to make these parts of our lives more convenient and enjoyable. Every aspect of our society is becoming more technologically advanced as a result.

AI has numerous applications in many different areas. Developers are working on creating helpful AI programs for health, education, and the military. These programs are designed to help people in specific situations with specific needs. For instance, a program designed to help soldiers study would be a great resource for all soldiers. This allows people to create programs that help them in their daily lives and careers. Plus, it allows the military to better train its personnel and create better war strategies.

AI blogs are another great way for AI to become more useful. People can learn from the blog posts created by AI experts. Each one teaches something new and useful about computer science or data analysis. This allows individuals to develop skills and have Fun while learning! Plus, it allows teachers to model lessons after what the students have learned- rather than what they need to know.

AI blogs also allow individuals to learn from each other. People connected by this technology share knowledge and information with one another. This allows everyone to grow and learn new things without needing to seek out experts or trainers themselves. This creates a peer-to-peer learning system that anyone can join in on. Not only does this make learning easier for everyone; it also creates a friendly learning environment for novices and experts alike.

AI blogs are great additions to the AI blogosphere! They help us understand how artificial intelligence works and help us use it every day. It’s easy for anyone to learn from AI blogs as they’re full of interesting information. Additionally, they’re a fun way for people connect with each other via the internet over similar interests. Hopefully, they’ll become even more popular as people learn about their many benefits!

So what do I think about it?

Firstly, the sentences are well formed. They are short, fairly punchy. But repetitive. The piece is so repetitive that it is boring.

Second, it is a very good starting point …. for you to edit and edit you must. The ‘you’ element has to be added.

Third, although Google has stated that AI generated and human generated content will rank equally and thus depend on the quality of the content [1], Google did say that using AI to create content to manipulate their ranking system is against their policy. So Google should be putting in place technology to identify ‘prohibited AI-generated content’ and then to depreciate its ranking. This will probably be one of those escalating ‘wars’. The AI engines will identify the algorithm used by Google and counter it. Google will then refine its algorithm to counter that and so on.

Fourth, clearly the AI did not generate ‘original’ thought but just reformat writings that are already out there. This is likely to be one of the data points that Google uses to identify AI content. If so, as a writer, you will have to up your game and write original, thought-provoking, and helpful content that human readers want. The AI readers will gobble anything and everything anyway.

Fifth, it will get there. As AI engines get better and better – and they will – it will be more and more difficult to distinguish what is human-written and what is AI-generated.

With the above 5 points, what then is there for the human writer? You will still have to decide the direction and focus your writing should take. I don’t think any AI can do that … yet. You will also have to decide the topics that would interest your targeted audience and that you have domain knowledge of. You can probably use the AI engine to generate a first draft for you to edit and add to.

On the broader issue of AI, much ink has been spilled over this topic. It has always been said previously that after the agricultural and industrial revolutions is the knowledge revolution of the 21st century. The knowledge worker is king (sorry, can’t think of a gender neutral word). Just two decades into this century, the knowledge revolution is being challenged by the ‘AI revolution’. What will happen to the knowledge worker? Society has experimented with universal basic income, an idea that government should pay everyone a basic salary irrespective of whether they are or are not working. The conclusion from the experiments? Inconclusive. Personally, I can only see something like this working in a Star Trek type economy where the concept of money no longer exists and in its place, society values talent.

In the meanwhile, if the AI revolution comes to fruition (and there is no certainty that it would), society will once again be in a state of flux.

Notes

[1] See https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/02/google-search-and-ai-content (viewed on 10 Mar 2023)