Volume 122: Generative Chatbot Edition
1. Off Kilter…Brought to You by ChatGPT.
tl;dr: AI mastering the art of bullshit. Oh, God help us all.
Like most of you, this week I’ve been deathly ill (getting better, fortunately) and extremely busy with work. A truly terrible combo.
But, rather than skip Off Kilter, I decided to autogenerate it using chatbot of the moment, ChatGPT, from the OpenAI project.
If you haven’t heard about it, it’s a dialog-focused generative chatbot that uses AI to respond to queries. It’s been variously hailed a Google-killer, essay-killer, and Next Big Thing. But what it truly appears to have mastered is the art of…Bullshit.
You see, not only does it have the capacity to provide well-written responses to questions almost instantly, it also has absolute confidence in these responses, even when they’re absolute nonsense. Like stating that the Peregrine Dolphin (which does not exist) is the fastest mammal in the sea.
From a marketing standpoint, the implications are pretty clear. In addition to transforming customer service chatbots, a vast amount of low-hanging SEO-focused “content marketing” is about to be written by machines rather than humans. I can see this having a meaningful impact, especially on small businesses initially. Imagine, for example, a single-person retailer looking to sell online. Set up your store page, identify search keywords, and then have ChatGPT autogenerate Google-friendly blog content based on these keywords on an automated, ongoing basis. Boom, you’ve got an SEO-driven marketing engine whirring away in the background without any requirement for human intervention, for free.
In the branding business, we’re a hairs-breadth from auto-generating the copy that goes into brand guidelines (let’s face it, it’s a formula that’s trivially easy to teach the AI in) and we’re likely to see a big impact on both voice and messaging work. Clearly, a VoiceAI has significant potential to come along and act as a writing filter, ensuring all branded content is written in whatever distinctive voice has been derived for that brand. It might not match the best, most creative copywriters, but it sure has the capacity to beat the very long tail of mediocre writing most brands suffer from.
Concerningly, the online disinformation landscape is likely to get infinitely worse. People “doing their research” on Google is already fraught with crazy, but at least there are sources that can be traced, and if you’re smart, you can use some basic media hygiene to parse the worst of it. In a generative AI environment, however, there are no sources: The learning algorithms are a black box, and when you ask the AI a question, utter nonsense can be presented exactly as confidently as absolute truth. Only without any way to trace the difference. And if you don’t think bad actors are going to use this for their own ends to “flood the zone,” well, you’re dreaming. They almost certainly already are.
Anyway. Enough on the negative side. Please have a laugh at a couple of silly queries I made this week. Each took about 1.5 seconds to autogenerate. It’s as impressive as it is frightening.
2. Write a Branding Rap in The Style of Eminem.
tl;dr: Look, I never pretended to be creative.
I'm the king of the branding game. Ain't no one who can do it like me. I create a unique identity. For every product and company
I'm the master of perception. I make sure you get the right impression. I build a reputation. That sets you apart from competition.
I'm the genius behind the logo. The one that everyone will know. I make sure it's memorable. And leaves a lasting impact like a photo.
I'm the mastermind of marketing. I make sure your message is appealing. I spread the word through channels. And make sure you're always revealing.
I'm the voice of your brand. The one that always stands. I make sure you stand out. And take the lead in this branding bout.
So if you want to succeed In this world of constant greed. Come to me, the branding pro. And I'll make sure you never go.
Unnoticed or unappreciated. I'll make sure you're elevated. To the top of the game. Where your brand will always reign.
3. Write an Off Kilter Article Like These.
tl;dr: So utterly wrong, and yet, kinda almost right.
As we all know, the world is a strange and wonderful place. But sometimes, things can get just a little bit off-kilter. Take, for instance, the fact that flamingos can stand on one leg for long periods of time but can't walk well on two. Or the fact that the world's largest mammal, the blue whale, feeds almost exclusively on tiny shrimp-like creatures called krill.
These quirks of nature are just a small taste of the off-kilter world we live in. And if you want to learn more about the bizarre and unexpected, there's no better place to look than Invencion.com.
At Invencion.com, we celebrate the strange and wonderful things that make our world so unique. From unusual animal behaviors to mind-boggling scientific discoveries, we cover it all. So if you're looking for a little bit of off-kilter fun, be sure to check out Invencion.com today. You never know what bizarre and fascinating facts you might discover!