Conversations About AI – Part 2: Can AutoGPT and ChatGPT Replace Me as a Blogger?

The ultimate statement of my future irrelevance arrived in my inbox in the last week telling me I am replaceable as a blogger and writer after 14 years of doing this. It turns out that AutoGPT and ChatGPT have me beat.

The email told me that with just a few prompts I could not only begin blogging but grow my audience “10 times faster with 10 times less effort!”

It stated all I had to do was pick a theme for an article, turn on web browsing, give it the links, pose some questions and then release the Kraken in the form of a generative AI. It would do all the heavy lifting from there.

The email I received took me to a link with a sample prompt to AutoGPT/ChatGPT to produce content with instructions like:

“write between 1,000 and 3,000 words….in English with at least 15 headings and subheadings”

“in your own words rather than copying and pasting from other sources”

“use fully detailed paragraphs that engage the reader:

“write in a conversational style as written by a human”

“keep it simple, engage the reader, use the active voice”

“incorporate analogies and metaphors”

“end with a conclusion paragraph and 5 unique FAQs [frequently asked questions]”

“do not use generic filler phrases”

“do not make it look like it was written by AI”

This was followed by targeted keywords to indicate to the AI tool what was to be the subject matter of the written piece.

Now, when I write a blog posting, I don’t follow a list of instructions. After 14 years of writing this blog and more than 3,500 articles, all of the above and more are intuitive. But an AI with generative text capability and access to the world wide web is being flaunted as capable of doing the same and more.

Look at a sampling of output from it and it sounds knowledgeable. Its content reads like something human-written. And I would bet it could pass the sniff test including Alan Turing’s, originally called the imitation game, which in a Wikipedia article is described as a “test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human.”

I dug further into the spiel about this new AutoGPT/ChatGPT which invited me to download an ebook entitled “How to Earn Money with ChatGPT.” A world of monetization opportunities was described including:

1. becoming a freelance writing, proofreading and editing service for others’ written materials.
2. blogging and content creation for social media including promotional posts to generate income.
3. producing ebooks and self-publishing on platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
4. developing online curricula, coaching and marketing of these programs.
5. generating email content and e-newsletters for marketing campaigns.
6. creating customized chatbots for your and your client’s websites.
7. utilizing ChatGPT’s multilingual capability to build a translation services business.
8. creating AI virtual assistants.
9. letter-writing and resume-producing services.
10. starting an advertising practice for a diverse range of clients.
11. marketing research and data analysis.
12. search-engine-optimized (SEO) content for clients.
13. ghostwriting, speech writing, film and video script writing.
14. managing social media and producing engaging content to foster a strong online presence.
15. online customer service resources including chat, email, social media, FAQs, and other supports.
16. becoming a documentalist by generating manuals, instructional guides, product information, and even e-commerce promotional websites.
17. generating original artwork using AI tools like DALL-E.
18. crowdfunding campaign content for sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter.

Should I raise the white flag and surrender to an AI capable of doing not just blogs but all of the rest I have described? Not for aminute as I soldier on to the next segment of “Conversations About AI” which you will se shortly.