I explored the subject of ChatGPT’s impact on content writing in a previous blog post. I noted that I, and other freelance writers, have cited AI as a potential reason for a massive drop in work opportunities. (Job boards I had used for years for finding freelance writing work had significantly fewer listings, with some having barely any at all.) The worry about AI leading to less writing work is intuitive (and kind of obvious), but research has now borne it out. A study by Imperial College Business School, Harvard Business School, and the German Institute for Economic Research found that the demand for digital freelancers like writers and coders has fallen by 21% since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.
Dr Xinrong Zhu, co-author and Assistant Professor of Marketing at Imperial College Business School, said:
Despite being available on the market for just over a year, ChatGPT has already had a huge impact on the workplace. Though many organizations may be shifting from freelancers to generative AI, it still remains to be seen whether organizations are happy with the quality of work that AI provides in comparison to freelancers, and whether this trend will continue.
However, she wasn’t necessarily pessimistic about the findings:
Although the findings of our research suggest that the jobs market looks gloomy, whenever technology sweeps professions aside, new ones will emerge. For freelancers, this means that those people adapt their skillsets to the changing landscape, will continue to secure work in the future.
(Interestingly, though, I’ve noticed on freelance writing job boards that ‘using AI is not allowed’, or something to that effect, will be in the job listing; I don’t know if that’s a warning not to ‘cheat’ or because AI content is considered inferior, or both. Sometimes, the client specifically states that the use of AI will result in immediate dismissal.) In the age of ChatGPT, Wayne Williams at TechRadar offers some tips for how freelancers can protect themselves:
- Diversifying your skills, especially in areas that require human intelligence and creativity (for freelance writers, this would include more nuanced content writing)
- Using AI to improve productivity and quality of work
- Building a personal brand and networking (which AI can’t do for you)
Yet there are also reasons to think that companies’ reliance on ChatGPT for content writing will backfire. One main reason is the uninspiring and unoriginal content that ChatGPT produces.
I recently had a (short-lived) client who I was initially writing completely original articles for, on the topic of using various philosophical ideas to improve mental health. It was a fairly interesting job; the topics were in the vein of those covered by The School of Life. So it wasn’t deep, nuanced philosophical writing, but I was grateful to get paid to write about the links between philosophy and mental health, even if the pay was lower than what I normally charge. However, after some time, my client wanted to try using ChatGPT, so that content could be created more efficiently. After giving ChatGPT the prompt for the topic, my job was to edit and improve the article it wrote for me. (The BBC reported on this trend, whereby clients ask writers to make AI-generated content sound more human.)
Initially, I was sceptical that AI would produce high-quality writing (and perhaps even slightly bitter that it was considered better at drafting an article). But after trying it out, I was surprised at the quality of the writing; it was pretty much free from any grammatical mistakes, and it read well. The writing was concise and, as far as I could tell, accurately described concepts. Plus, it consistently followed the specific requests I made in the prompts. So my cynicism about the abilities of ChatGPT abated – although only temporarily.
My client wanted me to get more specific with the topics. Before I was looking at a diverse range of topics, such as finding spiritual communities in a secular world, Viktor Frankl’s theory of meaning, existential anxiety, the psychological need for belonging, the Stoic approach to anxiety and relationships, Kieran Setiya’s critique of goal-oriented living, and Max Weber’s ideas on how capitalism fuels loneliness. But now he wanted me to produce content on how philosophical ideas – such as those found in Stoicism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Confucianism, and Shintoism – can help professionals, managers, and entrepreneurs deal with work-related stress and experience greater work satisfaction.
After some time, I noticed that ChatGPT would use the same sort of generic intro for the articles, just slightly reworded (even though I was trying to alter my prompts and despite the fact that the topics varied). Here are some examples:
- “In today’s fast-paced, results-driven work environment…”
- “In the modern workplace, where the relentless pursuit of success often leads to stress, burnout, and a skewed sense of priorities…”
- “In a world where the workplace is often dominated by competition, efficiency, and the pursuit of material success…”
- “In the modern workplace, where efficiency, productivity, and material success are often prioritized…”
- “In an era where job satisfaction is often measured by salary, perks, and titles…”
As you can see, it starts to feel quite repetitive and generic. Of course, human writers can write in uninspiring and unoriginal ways as well. But relying on this kind of written content, whether AI- or human-generated, might keep a blog active and afford some SEO benefits, but the benefits will still be limited. Readers will lose interest. If readers keep seeing basic, AI-generated content, they might avoid coming back to read that content in the future. It might contain useful, accurate, and readable information – which should be prioritised – but this doesn’t mean it will be original, thought-provoking, or shareworthy. It is these latter features of writing that AI content typically lacks. Google rewards original content, so it’s important for businesses to keep this in mind if they feel tempted to rely on ChatGPT for their content writing.
The fact is that ChatGPT would not be able to write this article that I’m currently writing; it relies on personal experiences and opinions, and my personal decisions about what ideas and resources to tie together. If companies start using ChatGPT-type content (which is similar to content mill-type content) over content that AI can’t write – such as journalism, thought leadership articles, copywriting, personal blogging, opinion pieces, and deep dives – then I think the content strategy will suffer. The content will feel uninspiring and will be less likely to be engaged with.
Jennifer Goforth Gregory, a content marketing writer, shares her views in a blog post:
I personally think that ChatGPT will have a similar effect on highly skilled content writers in the next few years as when content mills first became a thing. You may lose some customers in the short term, but many will come back. I also fully expect that the Google algorithm will quickly adjust to prioritize human-written content, just like they did with the content mills. Because companies that use AI content as their main source will not get the search results that they want, many will return to human writers.
I wanted to end by reiterating something I mentioned in my previous post on the topic: ChatGPT is not the only reason why freelance writing might be a struggle right now. It would be unfair to lay all the blame on AI. Cuts to marketing budgets could be another reason why it’s difficult to find and maintain long-term freelance work. Some recent Google core updates have also been seen as factors. SEO experts said that Google’s 2024 March core update – Google’s biggest core update – has negatively affected sites and blogs covering niche topics. My writing for one client was halted in May after they let me know their website traffic dropped by 50% after the March core update. They paused blog writing entirely and instead shifted their focus towards ads and social media.
I noticed a significant drop in traffic to my own blog – a 25% decrease – which has persisted even after Google’s August core update. The latter update, experts say, has benefited websites that have specific, original, high-quality, and personal content. First-person accounts and hands-on experience are being rewarded. I would like to think that my blog prioritises that kind of content, or maybe the benefits haven’t kicked in yet. However, it’s also normal to notice a drop in rankings after an algorithm update. It’s possible that because my blog, as a whole, is not niche (it covers a wide range of topics) this is why it hasn’t fared well after the August update. But the aim of my blog is not to rank well or generate as much traffic as possible. (My blog might benefit my freelance writing career, yet my goal is only to write about what interests me and in the way that I want to. So if Google rewards this, that’s a bonus, but if it doesn’t, it won’t change what or how I write.)
In any case, Google’s current algorithms might mean that many companies will start seeing their AI content strategy backfire. I wanted to bring attention to this, perhaps as a counter-narrative to the idea that it makes no sense to hire writers over AI. Maybe this post is also my attempt to convince companies to stop using ChatGPT and hire me instead, but as SEO experts are now finding through their research, there is good reason to think that companies should continue to value what human writers can offer them.
