Jon Gillham
Imagine you’ve hired a copywriter for your website. You’re thrilled with how quickly they send back the copy, and at a glance, it’s reasonably well-written and fulfils your brief and SEO requirements to the letter. However, once it’s posted on your site, you find that it’s not getting the traffic or conversion you were hoping for.
This could be for a number of reasons, but as technology advances, it’s highly possible that the issues stem from a writer’s use of AI text generation. It’s proven that blog posts and other written content are vital for businesses, but many of the benefits can be negated by the repetitive, cheaply written copy produced by many of these tools.
Freelance copywriters flock to AI because it makes the art of writing fast, cheap, and easy. However, when you’ve sought out fresh, impactful, and original material for your company, AI-generated content can leave a bad taste in your mouth.
To the untrained eye, it can seem impossible to tell if the content you’ve received is written by a human or a robot. With these tricks of the trade, you can discover any discrepancies between what you were promised and what your copywriters produce.
The Problem with AI Content
If AI can produce content that’s solid enough to pass for a human’s, what’s wrong with using it for your website and marketing?
Because AI writing tools rely on predictive text, it’s nearly impossible for them to come up with anything new. This leads to clear issues with content quality like
- Inaccurate claims
- Out-dated information
- Badly thought-out sentences
- Repetitive phrases and themes
If the ultimate goal of your content is to increase traffic to your website, you’ll run into even more problems with AI-generated work. Google disapproves of AI-generated content, making it challenging to get your posts to rank on the search page. The repetitive phrases can read like keyword stuffing, lowering your chances even more.
People will remember witty copy and may find your brand crossing their minds long after their initial search if your written content stands out. This isn’t the case if it reads the same as any other site that utilizes tools like GPT-3 or ChatGPT.
One of the biggest negatives of AI-generated writing is that it can miss the user intent entirely. A computer is not able to discern what a reader is actually interested in finding, so even if they click on your site, they are unlikely to find what they’re truly looking for.
Ultimately, the reason you’ve hired a copywriter is to receive original, powerful writing from a human perspective. If they’re simply throwing the prompt into a generator, you’re not getting what you paid for.
How To Detect AI Content
If you suspect that the content you’ve gotten back was written using AI, or even if you can’t tell, it’s always good to check. Here are a few ways that you can get a closer look at the quality of writing.
Method 1: Originality.AI
AI writing tools get more advanced every day. It can be a real challenge for someone who doesn’t know what they’re looking for to spot it. That’s why the best method for detecting the presence of AI content is with another strong AI tool.
Originality.AI is a great option if you’re looking for an AI private eye. It not only detects the use of AI text generation with 94%+ accuracy, but it also checks for plagiarism at the same time. This way, you can be sure that your content is unique and high quality before you post.
The team at Originality.AI is constantly updating its detection system to ensure it can identify even the latest AI models. Trained on the same natural language models of many generative text tools, it can let you know how predictable any content is. You’re even able to use it to check entire websites' feature AI content.
Method 2: Examination
If you want to try your hand at detecting AI-generated content, there are a few things you can keep an eye out for.
Repetition
AI is trained to use the most likely word in any sentence, leading to a lot of repetition. The program is going to take what information it’s given and run as far as it can. Watch out for articles that overuse SEO keywords or continually use the same phrases to refer to your target customers. These are signs that the AI was grasping at straws.
False Facts
If an AI program predicts that a statistic or fact would likely show up next in a piece of writing, it’s going to make one. This can lead to some pretty outrageous claims being made with no references to back them up.
Shallow Content
This can be difficult to discern, but if it feels like the writing doesn’t actually delve into the topic in a meaningful way, it might be AI-generated. Everything will feel like it’s common sense, or “robotic.” A human will automatically bring some of themselves into their writing, even if they are mimicking the tone of your brand.
Sentence Lengths
Because it is trying to write like a human would, but doesn’t quite understand the complexity of sentence structure, AI will often stick to short and repetitive sentences. Creativity is not its strong suit. If everything in a piece of writing has the same cadence and flow, you might want to take a closer look at it.
Even if you know what to look out for, studies have found that your chances of discovering AI-written content are as accurate as flipping a coin. That’s why we still recommend getting assistance and fighting robots with robots.
The Bottom Line
While AI generation can be wonderful, its power has the capacity to be used in harmful ways. If you’re receiving content from copywriters that isn’t as unique or top quality as you were promised, that’s a huge issue. It’s ultimately going to affect the way that search engines - and more importantly, customers - view your page.
To ensure your company gets the most out of its copy, use tools like Originality.AI and your own common sense to weed out any potential robots in writer's clothing. This way, your content will continue to be fresh and original far into the future.
Jon Gillham builds online businesses and buys offline businesses. He has had a portfolio of content sites for over a decade, is the Founder of Originality.AI, a plagiarism checker and AI detector and Co-Founder of MotionInvest.com a website brokerage.