Ep. 49: Stop Asking AI to Write for You
In this episode I make a direct ask: stop asking AI to write for you. I cover what makes AI writing bad, why it’s a bad business move for client-facing copy, and how to use AI as a thought partner instead of a ghostwriter.
A Simple Ask
Today I’m sliding in with a simple ask: stop asking AI to write for you.
I’ve been doing a ton of copywriting for folks lately, namely for their websites, and the majority tell me they used AI to help them with the copy. Nobody’s trying to hide that fact, which I appreciate, but for the love, what AI generates is just so bad.
Now, I’m a realist. I know you’re gonna use AI. I understand the appeal, I understand the dopamine hits, I understand the Vegas-like nature of “what might it generate,” I understand the relief of getting it “done” quickly. But I promise you: what it generates is NOT good.
Lest you label me a complainer, I want to offer up how I suggest using AI instead of simply asking it to write for you.
Use it for ideas. Use it for outlines. Use it for talking topics, titles, to help organize your thoughts. You could even go so far as to use it to guide what the main point of a paragraph or section of a website should be.
But just having it generate the writing for you? Immediately no. Straight to jail.
It’s Giving Veneer
So what actually makes AI writing bad? Simple: it doesn’t say anything.
On first pass, AI writing sounds fine. It reads well. But if you actually sit with the copy and ask, “What is this actually saying?”, it doesn’t hold up. It’s giving veneer – appears solid, appears real, but it’s covering something hollow underneath.
A slight tangent but equally problematic is when you ask AI to generate a business proposal or the like for you. It uses all the right words, puts them in an order that reads well, and because you’re excited and know the feeling you’re trying to capture, you think it’s good. But once again it’s just a whole lot of words that don’t actually say anything.
Y’all know that I love me some AI, but it’s absolute dogshit when it comes to client-facing copy.
Something that I need you to understand is that AI doesn’t have feelings. What it produces is based on complex mathematical computations that determine which word is statistically most likely to come next in a sentence based on everything that model has been trained on.
AI doesn’t have past experiences to draw from. AI doesn’t have past relationships to learn from. AI doesn’t have the ability to stop and think about how something will be received. Admittedly, when it comes to that last point, I can think of a good number of humans who are also lacking in that department, but that EQ piece is a glaring omission when it comes to AI writing.
Thought Partner, Not a Ghostwriter
Again, I know you’re gonna keep using AI for your writing, but my suggestion is this: instead of having it just write everything for you, have a discussion with it. Talk about what your goal is for whatever you’re creating, what people might feel when they read it, and what you’d like them to feel.
The big thing here is that you don’t just take what AI says as gospel. It’s simply about having the discussion and then asking yourself: “Does this make sense? Do I agree?”
I really do think there is tremendous value in using AI as a thought partner. But for the love, please stop using it as a ghostwriter.
A Terrible Business Move
Real talk: I do believe that people’s acceptance of AI is going to continue to grow. The example I always use is AI-generated music. That shit goes viral. Most recently, the “Puerto Rico” song (do a quick search literally anywhere if you don’t know what I”m talking about). That shit is catchy AF and I’ve literally seen zero negative comments about it on social media. And yes, I absolutely see plenty of negative comments about AI in general on social media, so I won’t chalk up the absence of trash talking to the silo effect.
I bring this up to make a point about the very real increase in AI acceptance that we’re already seeing, BUT I think we’re super far away from people trusting something when AI is the first interaction.
So if you’re using AI for client-facing tasks, especially for copy that is supposed to be trust-building (emails, websites, captions), it is, in my opinion, a terrible business move. Conversely, because folks are doing this nonsense, you have an opportunity to separate yourself… by just being a human and writing shit yourself.
How I Used AI This Week
Each episode I share a quick example of how I used AI that week.
This week I used AI to write a welcome email for me. 100% kidding.
This week I actually used AI in one of my favorite ways: to help me fix our shed door. I asked about different types of hardware, different types of wood, what would rust and what wouldn’t, what would provide the most structural support, what I should know before getting started, what tool would be best for the task, and my favorite question: “Are you sure about that?”
I pair my AI inquiries with YouTube University (and fully recommend you do the same), but it truly is such a handy, pun intended, helper.
Da Wrap-up
AI as a copywriter ain’t it. I get the appeal, I do, but anyone who reads it is going to get the ick. There’s a better way. I believe in you.
As always, endlessly grateful for you and your curiosity.
Catch you next Thursday.
Maestro out.