AI Checkers: The Reason to Use Less AI

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AI Checkers: The Reason to Use Less AI

AI Checkers: The Reason to Use Less AI

Even as the number of marketers saying they regularly use AI at work is growing, could it be that the those at the front of the curve—those who started using AI relatively early and have enough experience to know AI’s pros and cons—are starting to use it less?

In the upcoming print edition of What They Think, we take a deeper look at the realities behind AI use in marketing. In the meantime, let’s take examine just one of the reasons not to rely on AI in your copywriting . . . at least, not in the copy that’s easy to cut and paste.

It’s the AI checker.

Beware of the AI Checker

AI checkers are sites (or pages on sites) that will analyze a piece of text and determine the likelihood of whether AI has been used to generate any of the copy. If it has, the AI checker will estimate how much.

AI checkers are easy to come by. Just Google “free AI checkers,” and you’ll come up with plenty of options. One of the easiest to use is from Grammarly. Just cut and paste the text you want to check, then hit “check text” (you have a maximum of 10,000 characters). In about 30 seconds, Grammarly will tell you what percent of the text “appears to be AI generated.”

How do the AI checkers know? Because AI-generated copy is based on algorithms, and if you can create text using an algorithm, you can deconstruct it, too. AI-generated copy relies on word associations, probabilities, and statistical relationships between words. It doesn’t actually think. Write enough copy using AI and you’ll start to recognize it even without the aid of an AI checker. AI copy has a certain cadence to it. It’s also fairly generic, even when you ask it to locate source material and cite it. AI doesn’t offer the depth of a human author.

For fun, we took three articles we ran across recently that made us raise an eyebrow and threw them into Grammarly’s AI checker. What did we find?

  1. EDDM and direct mail strategy.

We aren’t going to name names, so you’ll have to use your imagination. But lots of companies are writing about Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) these days, and everything has to be done with strategy. This makes a prompt for an article of this type pretty easy (and common) to write. This particular article, which appears authoritative at first glance, was assessed by Grammarly at 37% AI generated.

  1. Designing for direct mail.

Your mail piece has to stand out. That takes great design. Great topic for a blog! This printer is right on top of the importance, with an article offering design tips for looking professional and catching the recipient’s eye. Except, in this case, it’s 46% AI generated.

  1. Packaging design trends.

Packaging is hot, and like clothing and interior design, the trends are constantly changing. For marketers, it’s important to stay on top of those trends as they change. This printer published an authoritative-sounding piece on packaging design, with bulleted examples of what each trend looks like. Sounds truly human! Except that 12% of the article is AI-generated.

Busted! Easier Than Ever to Spot

AI-generated copy is becoming increasingly easy to spot. As it does, this undermines the whole point of content marketing. The point is to establish yourself as an authority. How can you do that if AI is writing it for you?

As an example, the packaging article cited above. Twelve percent is better than the other articles, but it makes one wonder . . . which parts are in the 12 percent? If even 12% is AI-generated, does the company really know what it’s talking about?

Another function of content marketing is to draw potential customers into the funnel, and search engines don’t particularly like AI copy. One company tested AI-generated copy and found that its page views dropped substantially. It took months of writing non-AI-generated copy to rebuild its traffic.

Does this mean you shouldn’t use AI at all? No, but it does mean that you should use it as a foundation on which to build, but then edit, refine, and elaborate until it has true voice and insight. You might also want to throw into an AI checker before publishing it. Just to make sure you don’t get busted.

This article is 0% AI-generated.

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