Will Chat-CPT & AI Replace The Copywriter

Mayur Mistry

Feb 20, 2023 • 5 min read

Copywriting is one of the oldest professions.

The art of putting together words to convince or persuade someone to take action has been around for quite some time.

In fact, it is argued that persuasive copywriting goes back to 5th century AD with Aristotle who was well-versed in rhetoric and persuasion - but whether Aristotle can be described as a copywriter or not is a debate for another time.

Now, fast forward to the present, it seems that our cognitive ability to craft sentences that persuades readers to take action is threatened by the exponential rise of AI technologies, such as ChatCPT, that can do all the writing for us.

In this post, we take a look at what ChatGPT is, how it can benefit the world of copywriting and writing in general, the pitfalls of ChatGPT and I attempt to answer the question of where AI writing technologies will make the copywriting profession go obsolete.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an open source AI writing software that generates texts based on prompts. It was created by OpenAI, which was formerly co-founded by a team of tech entrepreneurs which included the likes of Elon Musk and Sam Altman in 2015. However, in 2018, Elon resigned from the board but remained a donor.

While ChatGPT has been around for some time, it wasn’t until November 2022 when ChatGPT, after going through several updates and upgrades, started to make waves.

And now that GPT-4 has launched recently, the technology has been attracting a great deal of controversy, in particular from writers, academics and the education sector.

How to Use ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is fairly simple and straightforward. Just go on ChatGPT website via OpenAI, register your account and it’s ready for you to use.

That said, it is not as easy to access ChatGPT when you need it. That’s because the main caveat to ChatGPT being so popular, it is not able to cope with the high demand. Although this can be rectified if you sign up for ChatGPT pro where you’ll have to pay a monthly subscription.

If you do see the above message, then you might as well make a cup of tea and come back. Hopefully, when you do come back, you will see the screen below:

Here, you can write a prompt on anything that you want.

For example, I asked ChatGPT to “write a funny 1000 word blog post about the best place to live as a digital nomad.”

The screenshot below is what ChatGPT has come up with.

As a digital nomad, the world is your oyster. You can work from anywhere with a decent internet connection and a laptop. But where is the best place to live as a digital nomad? Well, after traveling to dozens of countries and spending countless hours in co-working spaces and cafes, I can confidently say that the best place to live as a digital nomad is… drumroll please… your mom’s basement. Yes, you read that right. Your mom’s basement is the perfect place to live as a digital nomad. Don’t believe me? Let me explain. First of all, you have free rent. That’s right, your mom won’t charge you a dime to live in her basement. You can save all that money you would’ve spent on rent and put it towards more important things like avocado toast or a new pair of noise-cancelling headphones. Secondly, you have access to unlimited snacks. Need a quick break from work? Just pop upstairs and raid the pantry. Want a midday snack? Head to the kitchen and grab some chips and dip. Your mom will always have a fully-stocked fridge and pantry, so you’ll never go hungry. Thirdly, you have built-in company. Your mom will be more than happy to chat with you during your lunch break or after work. Plus, you’ll have your childhood dog or cat to keep you company. Who needs human friends when you have furry ones? But wait, there’s more! Your mom’s basement has all the amenities you need as a digital nomad. You’ll have access to high-speed internet (thanks to your mom’s cable package), a comfy bed to sleep in, and a quiet workspace (unless your little brother is playing video games upstairs). And the best part? You won’t have to deal with any annoying roommates or noisy neighbors. Your mom will respect your privacy and won’t judge you for wearing the same pair of sweatpants for three days straight. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “But ChatGPT, living in my mom’s basement sounds embarrassing.” Well, let me tell you, it’s not. In fact, it’s cool. You’re part of a growing trend of digital nomads who are taking advantage of their mom’s hospitality. Plus, you can always tell people you’re living in your “remote office”

Okay, that’s not what I expected. Albeit, it is mildly funny, but I don’t think many aspiring digital nomads would want to read that.

So, let me try again. On the second time around, I typed the following prompt: Top 10 locations for digital nomads.

Chiang Mai, Thailand Bali, Indonesia Lisbon, Portugal Medellin, Colombia Berlin, Germany Taipei, Taiwan Prague, Czech Republic Buenos Aires, Argentina Playa del Carmen, Mexico Ubud, Indonesia These locations have become popular for digital nomads due to factors such as affordable cost of living, good quality of life, reliable internet access, a thriving digital nomad community, and ease of obtaining visas. However, it's important to note that preferences vary and what works for one digital nomad may not work for another.

Now that’s better, we managed to get a definitive answer. If I wanted to get a blog post out of it, then I may have to ask ChatGPT why each city is so popular with digital nomads individually.

But while the above reads quite well, it feels rather generic, and it lacks any kind of soul.

Plus, where did ChatGPT get all the information? What factors did it take into consideration? And how can we know if Chiang Mai is really the best location.

To raise even more questions, in my research, I have looked into the three search results after typing “best digital nomad cities” and they all showed similar cities, but each search result had ranked the popular digital nomad cities differently.

The first link ranked Canggu in Bali as the best location, the second link ranked Lisbon in Portugal as the best city and the third link ranked Oaxaca in Mexico.

Considering there are various factors to consider in ranking a city for attracting digital nomads which include cost of living, internet speeds, quality of life and the community, it is hard to pinpoint how ChatGPT came to this conclusion,

The Limitations of ChatGPT

In fairness to ChatGPT, the AI software does give its users a pre-warning about its drawbacks as shown below. For one, there is a chance the AI program may provide inaccurate information.

Plus, we’re not shown how ChatGPT conducts its research and we’re not even given any sources for us to verify what ChatGPT says.

The other limitation is its reported bias, which I am not a fan of.

While we live in a world that is highly polarising, we shouldn’t negate both sides of the topic, even if we disagree.

But perhaps the most obvious limitation is the availability of the programme. During peak times, this software will not be available, so you have to wait and try again multiple times before you’re able to make use of the software

The Potential for ChatGPT

Despite its limitations, ChatGPT can be used as a handy research tool, but I would highly recommend it and it can be used by web designers to add some placeholder texts. Plus, given that it generates text pretty quickly, you save a heck of time researching and writing text.

The other potential use of ChatGPT is to get out of writer's block. It is quite handy to have a piece of software generate text for you so you can edit to your own style. However, as someone who believes writer’s block is simply a form of overthinking, I just simply freewrite to get myself out of the rut.

The last potential that I could find about ChatGPT, and this is a big one, is its ability to write code. Now, for someone who has a non-coding background, this will serve as a huge benefit if I ever wanted to write code for a web-based application (note, I have not tried this, so please correct me if I am wrong).

Will ChatGPT Replace The Copywriter?

So as I have gone through both the limitations and potential uses of ChatGPT, this does beg the questions whether the ChatGPT.

The simple answer is no.

ChatGPT is a useful tool. But it will never reach the level of comprehension of the human mind. To give you an example, the human mind has the capability to look and analyse multiple perspectives of a single topic, with AI, there is a potential limit to look at a few angles, or even less.

With a good copywriter, they are professionals who are skilled in researching both the target market and product and write prose that persuades people to take actions. And when it comes to marketing, they know full well how important it is to write content that is factually accurate and comes in line with the advertising guidelines.

So yes, the copywriting profession is not dead. Not just yet.

What is ChatGPT?

How to Use ChatGPT?

The Limitations of ChatGPT

The Potential for ChatGPT

Will ChatGPT Replace The Copywriter?

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