<p><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">Even if it seems like a super contemporary issue, people have been fearing technology for centuries. English Luddites at the beginning of the 19th century rose against what they believed were their biggest enemies: machines replacing them at artisanal jobs. Now, digital media enthusiasts are going from panic attacks to full on manic episodes, thinking they will either be replaced forever or maybe that they will be able to rely fully on these tools. Were Luddites right all along? Are current marketers justified in ringing the alarm? Let’s dissect it.</span></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><h3><strong class="ql-color-#000000">The tools</strong></h3><p><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000">If you have been on the internet at all in the last months, you were probably reading these words just wondering when we were going to mention </span><strong class="ql-color-#000000">ChatGPT</strong><span class="ql-color-#000000">. The time has come.&nbsp;</span></p><p><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000">Even if it’s not the only one, the OpenAI product is definitely on its way to own the “It Girl of Chatbot AI” title. Everyone has been talking about it since its debut, losing their minds over what seems to be some really advanced technology. Indeed, when asked </span><em class="ql-color-#000000">what</em><span class="ql-color-#000000"> it is, the answer ChatGPT gives is:</span></p><p><br></p><blockquote><em class="ql-color-#000000">“...a </em><strong class="ql-color-#000000"><em>large language model</em></strong><em class="ql-color-#000000"> trained by OpenAI </em><em class="ql-color-#202124">[...] a </em><strong class="ql-color-#202124"><em>form of artificial intelligence</em></strong><em class="ql-color-#202124"> that has been designed to process and generate </em><strong class="ql-color-#202124"><em>human-like</em></strong><em class="ql-color-#202124"> language…”</em></blockquote><p><br></p><p><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">ChatGPT</strong><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> has the ability to create content, write code and debug, write Google Adwords texts, do keyword research, manage and manipulate data and explain almost any topic; other AI focus on image generation which is a whole other discussion in and of itself. Because it takes the form of a chatbot, the brief of what you want it to write must be sent as a written request. Each iteration of the same request will create different outcomes.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">The North American academic and video game designer Ian Bogost argues, in an article for The Atlantic, that ChatGPT shouldn’t be considered a </span><em class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">tool</em><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> but rather a </span><em class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">toy</em><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">; just a way to engage in playful conversation simulation. Even if Bogost doesn’t affirm this point, his article makes us wonder: does this mean it’s less relevant? Creation and creativity are often motivated by suspending the rules of regular, everyday life and devoting time to the trance-like state of game playing. In this way, the line between tool and toy gets blurred. But his main point remains strong: ChatGPT doesn’t understand what it composes, and in that sense it’s far from being intelligent. It rather offers</span></p><p><br></p><blockquote><em class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">“…an </em><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"><em>interface into the textual infinity of digitized life</em></strong><em class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">, an otherwise impenetrable space that few humans can use effectively in the present”</em><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">.</span></blockquote><p><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">Even if there are plenty of similar tools, none of them generated the debate that ChatGPT spread across the internet. This is why we can predict that its impact will influence the whole ecosystem, with all the AI services trying to imitate both the capabilities and the social buzz that OpenAI has.</span></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><h3><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">Training: limits and biases</strong></h3><p><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">According to its creator’s site, ChatGPT was trained through </span><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF).</strong><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> This means that humans simulated conversations from both ends of the chat, training it to generate words based on a given input in a way that feels like the AI really comprehends the depths, nuances and cultural phenomena that mold every social interaction we have. This is in no way, shape or form true. In fact, the lack of understanding that these kinds of toy-tools have can lead to some very faulty answers.&nbsp;</span></p><p class="ql-indent-1"><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">In addition to being trained by humans in the art of conversation, </span><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">the AI was fed with 300 billion words obtained via the internet</strong><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> (from books, articles, websites and more). Even if we were to feed AI with only academic papers and scientific content, it would still be heavily biased. But the reality is that the internet contains an endless amount of ableist, misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, homophobic and violent texts that are usually spilled by emotional humans lead by a personal vendetta against some kind of marginalized group on which they put the blame for all of their own frustrations. Sounds familiar?</span></p><p><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">It’s not the first time that this topic has been put under scrutiny. We have been warned again and again: unchecked machine learning will generate some pretty disgusting “automated” discourse, just because social power dynamics are also expressed in the digital world. This is a pretty bleak–yet realistic–scenario, where we can see how hate speech tends to overpower tolerance and inclusion, usually in favor of the ones in power. Even if conservatives live afraid we’re “dying of political correctness”, with just a glance at any comment section on any slightly viral social media post we will rest assured that this is </span><em class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">not</em><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> true.</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">There is no way an AI could be unbiased.</strong><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> Even if all of the texts fed to it were to be checked by a person that has basic human rights as their guide to moderate content, some will argue that this is also a biased way of going about it. Bias, misinformation and limited knowledge are some of the definitory features of any human being’s ideology. </span><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">What’s potentially dangerous about this is that the information is presented as neutral, unbiased and “correct,” despite the fact that the bot can’t actually understand meaning</strong><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> (much less connotation, irony, humor, sarcasm, or any emotions). Yet many people aren’t aware of these limitations.&nbsp;</span></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><h3><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">Workflow</strong></h3><p><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">Based on our own experience, we can’t say these toy-tools have no use at all. </span><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">They can certainly help with writer’s block, drafting ideas, getting some concepts out and short-form copywriting</strong><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> (even if it’s just raw material that will then be tweaked and perfected). There is a learning curve ahead of us, not only for users but for the technology itself. Even if that is the case, we have some preliminary uses we concluded were helpful and safe–and could even improve the quality of the outcome, if done correctly.</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">Long-form texts are definitely not a use we recommend.</strong><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> Formulaic writing and the lack of true knowledge are major handicaps for the potential of ChatGPT for these kinds of outputs. The results tend to be shallow and potentially incorrect (which gets really time consuming when we then have to check every fact given). It’s still more efficient to do our own research and writing. On the other hand, as we said, short-form texts can be useful (titles, email subjects, Google Ads headlines and descriptions…).&nbsp;</span></p><p><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">The playfulness of the tool has proven to be really helpful when you’re blocked; it allows us to fool around while also doing a challenging exercise, which is phrasing and rephrasing and rethinking our request (or the way we communicate it). </span><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">As wordsmiths and creative thinkers, ChatGPT has become a kind of brainstorming toy to help us get some initial ideas and define our process and goal.</strong><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> Because the results of the tool are usually slightly off, we are encouraged to rewrite our brief, hoping this will make for a better outcome. It allows us to think about all the different ways we could talk about the concept we have developed, or even reevaluate or give it substance, since we can see more bluntly which flaws our idea has.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">It is in this vein that we coined the term toy-tool: at least for now, AI walks the line between the two, not really being one or the other but serving as both in some ways. </span><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">Our main conclusion is that you need to have a really clear professional criteria to use this tool in a way that is mainly positive and constructive.</strong><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> In the same way that analog photography gives you an understanding of light that digital photography doesn’t, we are convinced that a solid foundation is necessary before accessing a tool like this. And for students, this means having an ethical commitment to learning and developing skills and discernment for themselves (even if they actively use the technology for their work).</span></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><h3><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">The new Google?</strong></h3><p><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">When using these tools we feel we’re getting into a terrain that feels familiar, yet somehow better. The act of asking a robot a question and receiving an answer isn’t, of course, totally new.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">These last three years marked the beginning of a totally digitized way of living: practically </span><em class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">every single</em><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> private or public entity is now on the internet. And Google Search, even if it's still a great way to get a feel of what info is “out there” about a topic, it sometimes fails to give us the specific answers we need–and obviously it’s not designed to </span><em class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">create</em><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> texts or images.&nbsp;</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">In a way, ChatGPT is the search engine we needed. It helps you pose questions with more details, doesn’t have any ads that could bias the research and it will help you get a grasp on some topics that may be tricky, in a didactic way.&nbsp;</strong></p><p><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">But still (and unlike Google’s own ChatGPT, Socratic), it doesn’t acknowledge where all these answers are sourced from. Fact-checking, as we mentioned, is a vital part of working with it, and it probably will take place…on Google. Because we can access sources, determine authorship and get a sense of which ideas are coming from where (because every idea out there originally came from a human and social process that is inherently ideological), </span><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">Google is still a trusted source to make sure we are putting out high-quality pieces with added value.&nbsp;</strong></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><h3><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">The future</strong></h3><p><br></p><p><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">Working in this field means not just adapting to, but getting ahead of, change.</strong><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> It means striving to always be at the forefront of the process to give clients and consumers the best service possible. The benefits of leading are not only measurable in terms of profit, but also in the way that one can get influenced by and interact with the cultural changes that are the true agents of transformation in the ways that we work, produce and communicate.&nbsp;</span></p><p><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">Critical thinking and high-quality standards will keep copywriters and marketing strategists from being fazed by AI tools: they will rather</span><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> learn to use them to enhance workflows and help the pre-production process.</strong><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> The gap between apocalyptic, optimist and integrated professionals will only benefit those who work to maintain the human component in content creation while still adapting to the demands of the market. Those who would rather ignore–or, even worse, fully hand their work over to–AI technologies, will struggle to put out relevant content into the world.</span></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><h3><strong class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">We have been walking the way of the future for 20+ years. If you want to know more about how copywriting could revolutionize your brand, contact us!</strong></h3><p><br></p><p><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;">(Thanks to </span><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/chatgpt-openai-artificial-intelligence-writing-ethics/672386/" target="_blank" class="ql-color-#888888" style="background-color: transparent;"><u>Ian Bogost’s article for The Atlantic</u></a><span class="ql-color-#000000" style="background-color: transparent;"> that helped us reflect on this matter)</span></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>