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37 Comments

Unpopular opinion: I don't like AI content generator tools

Am I the only one who doesn't like them? I've seen a lot of new tools that seem to be super cool because they can create your next article for you, or they can tweet super trendy stuff for you.

Yes, the technology behind it is super cool, but it seems to me that they are just adding more and more junk and pollution to the Internet. If I'm going to follow you on Twitter it's because you tell interesting stories not because you tweet random general stuff that hundreds are tweeting too.

There seems to be a book of "things to tweet" like:

  • "what are you building this weekend, share it here to promote it."
  • "you have to build something that brings value to your customers."
  • "I can't believe I already have 1000 new friends here."

I don't want to sound like a total hater here, but I wanted to see if I was the only one with this feeling. Maybe I'm wrong and there's something I'm not seeing right.

Cheers!

  1. 6

    Finally, someone saying out loud what I think every time I come across a generic post or Tweet. I don't think I have read any AI-generated content, so I don't know about that. But most people on Twitter seem to have read the same book on how to grow an audience by posting the same generic uninteresting stuff over and over again. I don't think AI will make it any better.

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      Check out tweet hunter, it seems to be exactly what OP was talking about.

    2. 2

      Thanks for your comment! I hate that book!!
      If you are desperate for growing your audience, you can try buying some bots to follow you. It feels the same to me.

  2. 5

    The content generated by these tools looks as authentic and inviting as those clean, aseptic, perfect and soulless stock photos.

  3. 3

    "what are you building this weekend, share it here to promote it."
    "you have to build something that brings value to your customers."
    "I can't believe I already have 1000 new friends here."

    I absolutely hate these. So unoriginal and just plain bad advice. "Build something that brings value to consumers". Like c'mon, a kindergartner could tell you that.

    And I especially hate the x new friends threads. I'm not your friend. Unless you provide a useful utility that can help me, I probably won't want anything to do with you. I simply follow you for the content that you put out. And if half of your tweets are x+1 friend, build good stuff etc, I am going to unfollow you

    1. 2

      hahaha 100% agreed. I guess the "book for growth" says "engage with your followers as they were your friends".

      1. 1

        I understand they're trying to connect with their audience, but I just find it creepy.

        I can guarantee that 90% of the people who put out those x friends tweets wouldn't care enough to message you back if you reached out to them

        1. 2

          I thought they were going to call me if I was having a bad day :(

  4. 3

    AI sounds great in the papers but lack the human element as you said. At the moment AI doesn't have that unique personality so that it can craft messages, articles that a human being would create.

    At least that's another unpopular opinion that I have regarding AI.

  5. 3

    Funny you'd say these things using the common "unpopular opinion" format 😉

    No but seriously, I get your point. And I'm actually the founder of a tool that partially does what you're talking about for Twitter. You might consider me your enemy!

    So here's my take on this, and it's totally OK to disagree:

    • An overwhelming majority of people who use this kind of AI only do it to get started or feed their creative brain. I don't believe people would just click a button and then post, at least not anyone who's going to succeed.

    • I strongly believe Twitter (and other social medias / blogs) is about saying a few things, in 1000 different ways. The copy and angle you choose are much more important than the idea. Same as for startups when people say "ideas are worthless, execution is everything". So taking a good idea and applying it a format that works doesn't seem like a problem to me. On the contrary, you're helping the idea spread by making the message clearer.

    • There definitely is a book of things to tweet. But that only takes you so far, because Twitter is about publishing multiple times a day. So once you've done the typical "hey I'm new here" + "here's my MRR" + "unpopular opinion", "build an audience before a product" tweets, you have to go out of your comfort zone at some point. AI can help you get started with that.

    My conclusion is: a lot of content you find online is generic. But it's not AI's fault. It's human nature to think you're original when really you just got influenced by something you read/watched. And you may not like said content but a lot of people do (which is why it works).

    I think AI is actually a step forward because it's imperfect. That helps because sometimes you get something weird that is actually a brand new idea no human would've had.

    All of this doesn't change the fact that I agree being genuine is still the best way of having high performing content. But taking inspiration from others or using AI can help you phrase things in a way that will make your idea spread.

    And finally, I myself find that a lot of social media feeds are boring (whether Twitter or Instagram or LinkedIn or whatever). But the nice thing about Twitter is you can make Lists of people you like. I use them to get different kinds of tweets from different kinds of people. It makes my overall experience better, I highly recommend you do that if you're not doing so already!

    BTW, I checked out Dailytics through your Twitter, looks good! Is is particularly adapted to ecommerce or do you see a good use case for SaaS as well? (saying this based on landing page)

    1. 1

      Hi @tomjacquesson thanks for your comment.

      First of all, I want to be clear here: we are not enemies. We are both indie hackers doing what we love (but I'm like 1000 times less successful than you).

      I understand your point of view and I've seen your tool, it's super awesome! My only concern is a fundamental (and personal) principle: if I don't feel creative today, or if I have nothing to share, then I don't tweet.

      My twitter feed also gets boring when I start seeing all that generic content.

      You're absolutely right about the use of "unpopular opinion" here. I guess I just wanted to put up a virtual shield up front.

      I wish all the success to your product. You found a niche and you are doing the best you can. I don't belong to that niche and that's totally fine.

      1. 1

        I know it was just a humor trait about the "enemy" part, I thought your global message was very calm and really didn't take it personally. A lot of people tend to rant and you seem like you are very composed which is a great trait!

        I think that boring content is something we both hate, but perhaps don't fully agree on how to change it.

        As for not tweeting when you have nothing to say, I understand that as well and in a world where people don't care about being followed, I would apply the same thing.

        But followings are turned into an audience which in the end becomes valuable.

        And people follow you because you tweet things they like regularly, not twice a month. Not saying that's a good thing, but it is how it is .

        I think same goes for "subscription" products. Like I'm not gonna subscribe to Netflix if I just watch a couple of episodes every month. I subscribe because I use it everyday, often to watch average-quality stuff and sometimes for an amazing movie.

        1. 1

          You are totally right: it is how it is.

          I'm glad we can share our opinions openly here.

          PS: I just followed you on twitter :)

  6. 2

    With content being cheaper and cheaper to produce thx to AI, content pollution is going to grow more and more

  7. 1

    I experimented with some of these tools and they are the perfect creativity killers. As a writer, you get addicted to them and then you can’t generate any ideas without using these tools again. Yes, they can help you create amazing blog intros as well as PAS website copy and stuff like that… but they are addictive and at some point you stop being creative

  8. 1

    In gaming there's the phrase "botting-out". So although the tweets, headlines, thumbnails, etc might be written by humans they might as well have been written by bots if the content is mindless or just meant to "grow" a channel. All the algorithms on twitter, youtube, etc promote this behavior. Channels are not rewarded for providing value, just obtaining views. I suppose that's marketing and these companies are mainly ad revenue driven, so I guess what else can be expected?

    I can understand the sentiment in the OP. I see self promotion enough all over the web that I can appreciate when someone starts a discussion on this heart burn.

  9. 1

    I think there are people who are thinking these AI tools will write the complete article for you. If you thinking that then you are wrong.

    These are just tools that can make your content writing experience easy and fast.

    You have to use these tools as your writing assistant. You simply can't rely on these tools for content. Human touch is inevitable.

    If you are someone who struggles to find content ideas or have writer's block then it can do wonders for you.

    I have created around 10 content pieces using ai copywriting tools and those 10 articles are ranking on Page 1.

    I’ve outlined what I need to do for some great long-form copy using Jarvis.

    Step 1. Fill in the title in the long-form editor
    Step 2. Fill in the content description in the sidebar where you need to give input
    Step 3. Command + J > Command + J > Command + J > Command + J >
    Step 4. SEO, Analysis and Profit.

    Currently, I am using Jarvis and Closerscopy. Let me know if you have any further questions.

    Resources:

    Jarvis AI: https://jarvis.ai/free-trial?fpr=suresh (Get Free 10,000 Words Credit using this link to test the tool)
    ClosersCopy: https://www.closerscopy.com/lifetime?ref=keae (Flat 30% Off deal going on lifetime plans for next 38 hours)
    Best AI Copywriting Tools List: https://suresh.tech/best-ai-content-writing-tools/

    Regards,
    Suresh
    SEO Consultant

    1. 1

      Nice cross selling of your affiliate links and SEO services, Suresh! However, I don’t want to read content that ranks, because it’s usually the SEO AI crap without any depth, value or unique info that I can get from there. If I were you I wouldn’t post this comment.

      1. 1

        Hey thanks, Alexandra for your comment and I respect your take on AI tools.

        Today the only content ranked by Google is read and engaged by 100's of users.

        SEO evolves every day, and no tool can give you 100% SEO friendly articles in the first place.

        Human touch is needed, I have used these tools as my writing assistants because of my bad English and lack of words.

        You are a copywriter and I am sure might be doing a great job but using such tools can help you improve your productivity by 5x. Try it!

        And I can understand your frustration because as an SEO practitioner I can't compare CRAP with SEO.

        SEO is UXO (User Experience Optimization)

        Let me know if you need any further help :)

        1. 1

          I use one of these tools purely for brainstorming with myself. Never use it to write content. My clients pay me for research and unique copy that’s designed for a very niche audiences. Not for generic articles. And good research papers as well as first-hand information is rarely in the top 10 of SERP

          1. 1

            It would be great if you can give examples here.

            And ai copywriting tools are not made for research papers or factual-based content requirements.

            They can do hard work not smart work :)

            Also if you have created some research content that you think is worth appearing on page 1 then do share that with me and I tell you how you can bring that piece up!

            Thanks!
            https://twitter.com/bedigisure

            1. 1

              I’m not speaking of research papers per-se, I’m speaking about research papers a copywriter needs to read, amount of interviews that we need to do with clients and potential customers to have enough data to write highly-targeted website copy. Maybe blog articles that are written to “make Google believe that there’s content” and rank them can benefit from AI tools, but they are useless for niche website copy.

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                Hey for this, I recommend relying on authentic sources and there are few companies who are doing a great job from a research point of view.

                Now I understood your point and AI is useless for this requirement.

                Niche website copy must be done manually but AI can help to enhance your content.

                All the best!

  10. 1

    Agree so far, but I still have to go test out the pure-content marketed ones.

    A friend recently wrote a piece (https://tooltip.com/blog/ai-writing-assistant) on using a related class of generators to write fiction and related that he was quite impressed with it.

    Think when you come in with really strong ideas and research then use the tool to just craft/re-compose the message until it hits just right you can probably get some pretty good/interesting results.

  11. 1

    A lot of content on the internet is already kind of created in a programmatic way. Or in other words, people act like A.I. You're right it's really not enjoyable. I guess your beef is more with the predefined structure that people fit into than A.I.

  12. 1

    You're definitely not the only one. Another thing that's annoying is the large volume of generic content out on blogs. For example, search for marketing or business related stuff, and the search results are usually be dominated by blog posts and articles giving the same generic "X ways to do Y" as thousands of other websites.

    1. 2

      Yeah because you have people like Suresh (from the comments above) writing seo articles using AI and ranking them on page 1 of Google so people like you can’t find anything of a value in the internet. What an irony!

  13. 1

    I agree, to a point, but I disagree that they don't generate anything new. GPT-3 and others actually excel in helping you think outside the box. Those trying to take a shortcut end up with second-rate content. But those that want to enhance writing quality probably get some use out of it.

    I however have long thought that everyone is going the same direction with the tools they build with GPT-3. I have an idea on a method of using it that is totally in another space. It is going to take some serious development to get it made. So it could be, the more mature tools that are more useful are still down the road, and what we see now are the easy application of the APIs.

  14. 1

    What do you mean by "AI content generator tools"?

    Generating text e.g. with GPT-3 is going to add lots of noise, the opposite of concise writing that respects its readers time. I think copy.ai is brilliant - they use that fact to generate SEO content where you want that text style with lots of keywords.

    The "things to tweet" you mentioned are accepted Twitter growth wisdom, people tweet that (without any AI involvement) because it gets you more followers.

    1. 2

      You are right, I believe I mixed two different topics here.
      My issue with tools like the one you mentioned is that “they help you making Google believe you have content” but you actually have nothing new to offer if it was generated with AI…

      1. 1

        Totally agree! Nowadays SEO gurus teach people to “make Google believe” instead of teaching how to properly do research, how to interview experts, how to conduct surveys to write content that’s worth reading. And this kind of content can’t be produced in big volumes

        1. 1

          I really enjoyed all your comments above :)
          It’s kind of sad to see how cannibalised the internet is… with smart people adding zero valuable content.

          1. 2

            Yes, everything is spun... I actually started going back to real books and some online lectures to do research for my clients' articles.

  15. 11

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 1

      "MANY of the products that were “Powered by AI” actually weren’t."

      ^ Do you have any source or anything for that? It's something I've often wondered when I see things saying they're powered by machine learning and would like to read more about if possible...

      1. 2

        As a person that was working on a large AI project in the past - AI is just a marketing slogan. Not one entity figured AI as of today, not even military, Wall Street, IBM, or Google. When I left the AI world I was immensely disappointed due to the state of current (and past, and near future) of AI. It's just overblown algorithms and databases. That's it. We are not even close to AI (despite what media and marketing teams are saying for the last 30 years). I'll say I was naive due to the lack of knowledge - but I just thought there was more than what's there.

      2. 3

        This comment was deleted a year ago.

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