writing

Can These 4 Reasons Convince You to Not Use ChatGPT as a Writer?

AI can be a good friend, but also your deadliest foe.

Anangsha Alammyan

Apr 5, 2023 • 4 min read

In the few months since OpenAI’s ChatGPT hit the market, the world has been abuzz with new developments, cool prompts, and discussing how AI can either replace writers or optimize their productivity.

There are multiple Notion guides and Tweet threads online that will teach you how to use ChatGPT as a writer.

This article is not one of those.

I’m here to share with you four compelling reasons why you should not use ChatGPT as a writer. Read on, and don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments.

1. Similar-sounding content

AI tools are as smart as the prompts you share.

With every creator sharing their tips and secrets for writing good ChatGPT prompts, the chances are high that many people might use the same or similar-sounding prompts for similar content.

When two writers write about the same topic, their experiences and perspective will make the posts different.

But when AI writes two articles about the same topic, no matter how smart the prompts are, the end result might end up quite similar in both cases.

ChatGPT-generated text doesn’t contain originality. Plagiarism checkers might light up.

2. It can kill your SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, means writing your articles in such a way that they end up on page one of Google when users search for a related query.

But with ChatGPT-generated articles, things can get tricky.

Google makes AI content hard to rank.

As this post in Search Engine Journal quotes, “Using automation, including AI, to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results violates Google’s spam policies.”

Content written by machines might be

Repetitive,
Linking to unreliable sources,
Full of non-sequiturs and cliches,
Contain analogies that make no sense,
Unwittingly plagiarized (by someone else using the same prompts).

For all these and more, such content might be considered spam.

In my experience, AI-generated content appears like you’re putting synonyms in already-published content to escape plagiarism.

This trick doesn’t work on Google.

To save your website’s domain rankings, better stay away from publishing content that’s 100% AI-generated.

expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthinessGoogle Search’s guidance about AI-generated content

3. It can kill your creativity

Creative writing is an art. And the writer is an artist.

The more you practice the art, the better it gets.

But if you use ChatGPT to do all the creative work, your creative mind might get rusty.

Sure, asking ChatGPT to create article outlines for you seems like your productivity got a boost. But it can hinder your creative process where the unique ideas flourish.

Practice can beat productivity boosters, especially when it comes to an intricate and intimate art like writing.

4. Impossible to maintain a consistent voice

When you’re building a brand online, the most important tools in your arsenal are your brand voice and tone.

Your audience knows you for your unique style. They follow you because of your relatability, authenticity, and community-building efforts.

But if you use AI to write your posts, you can’t keep up with a consistent voice.

Since the writing comes from the amalgamation of the AI’s training, all the posts will sound like the average clickbait content we read on the internet.

This can repel your audience and seriously hurt your brand-building efforts.

Why not to use ChatGPT as a writer: The bottom line

Like any technology, ChatGPT is useful when you use it with caution.

If you use it as a tool, it can help you find creative inspiration faster. But if you let it rule, it will drive you out of creativity.

Summing up, here are the four reasons why you shouldn’t use ChatGPT as a writer.

The same prompts give the same content
Google makes AI content hard to rank
It kills your creativity
Makes it impossible to maintain a consistent voice

What reason would you add to this list? Please do share your insights in the comments.

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