AI vs. Human-Created Content, Can You Tell, and Does It Matter?

More content is being created by AI what businesses need to know

Author

Mark Hinkle
May 31, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 22 minutes

Should we care who generates what we consume—man or machine? This week, I’ll discuss how AI-generated content is changing business.

Thank you for subscribing; it means a lot to me. Enjoy this week’s edition.

Sentiment Analysis

If you had invested $1000 in NVIDIA in 2005, it’d be worth $703,539.

But even if you had invested in the last 10 years, you’d have done well.

Here’s the craziness: if you had invested on January 2nd, when the market opened this year, you’d have registered a gain of roughly 130% in under 5 months!

Last week, NVIDIA announced earnings record quarterly revenue of $26.0 billion, up 18% from Q4 and 262% from a year ago, and a ten-for-one forward stock split effective June 7, 2024. Nvidia's stock has risen due to its profitable AI processors. Their sales, particularly of GPUs, have surged, doubling revenues year-over-year in the current quarter.

Nvidia's stock has increased by 7% due to xAI, Elon Musk's most recent business venture, rather than the significant company news from last week. Nvidia’s top customers include many leading tech companies, and now xAI, which recently raised $6 billion, is expected to become a significant customer. This investment, aimed at developing a supercomputer for xAI's chatbot Grok, will likely involve purchasing tens of thousands of Nvidia chips. This news has fueled investor optimism about Nvidia's future demand, reinforcing the stock's appeal despite its already high valuation.

[Also, if you want to learn more about GPUs, here’s a primer I wrote earlier this year.]

AI TL;DR

Generative AI News, Tips, and Apps

  • Google’s Project Astra, A universal AI agent that is helpful in everyday life - While we've made incredible progress in developing AI systems that can understand multimodal information, reducing response time to something conversational is a challenging engineering task. This project is the future of Google’s assistants, and I highly recommend watching the demo videos on their page to understand where the technology is going. I'm not sure if they will get there, but someone will.

  • OpenAI Says It Has Begun Training a New Flagship A.I. Model -

    The advanced A.I. system would succeed GPT-4, which powers ChatGPT. The company has also created a new safety committee to address A.I.’s risks. Each new model seems more capable and provided that this model gets really good, it could be called GPT 5o. I doubt this model will be close to artificial general intelligence (AGI). By the way, did you know that once a new model comes out it’s likely just to get, “thrown out”. It seems like a waste, but here’s the story.

  • Financial Statement Analysis with Large Language Models - My first job was as a financial advisor. I sucked at it. It was pre-Internet days, and data came from newspapers and snail mail. I gave that up for a tech career, which I do not regret.

    Now data comes in near real-time, and we drink from the firehose. Anyhow, that makes the emotional part of investing harder to control. CNN's Fear & Greed Index, which gauges market sentiment based on seven indicators, shows how emotions like fear and greed can drive market movements.

    Here's a great example. Even without any narrative or industry-specific information, the LLM outperforms financial analysts in predicting earnings changes. When analysts struggle, the LLM exhibits a relative advantage over human analysts. The paper ‘Financial Statement Analysis with Large Language Models' was published by researchers at the University of Chicago on May 24. It’s a bit technical, but the takeaway is fascinating.

Feature Story

AI vs. Human-Created Content, Can You Tell, and Does It Matter?

AI-generated content can streamline the content creation process, saving time and resources. Writers using AI spend around 30% less time writing a blog post than those who don't, allowing businesses to produce a larger volume of content quickly. AI tools can analyze data to create SEO-friendly content for specific audiences, optimizing visibility and reach.

I conducted a poll on LinkedIn last week to gather opinions on whether people cared about whether AI generated the content they consumed. I found the split interesting. Most people didn’t care, but a large percentage preferred human-generated content.

Here are some statistics on the state of AI-generated content that I found interesting.

  • Approximately 85.1% of AI users utilize the technology for article writing and content creation.

  • 76% of marketers already use AI for basic content creation and copy generation.

  • 82% of marketers believe that AI-generated content is as good as human-generated content. However, most content is not great, so this is a low bar.

  • In Google's search results, AI-generated content comprised 11.5% of the total as of May 2024

Now, here’s a story about this week’s article. I wrote this article because I had submitted something to a news outlet, and it was kicked back to me.

There's more to the story, but I won't tell it because that person would be horrified.

The long and short of it is that someone didn't like the content because it didn't pass an AI checker.

Not because it wasn't correct.
Not because it wasn't well-written.
But because it was deemed to have been written by AI.

Also, the person who rejected it makes a living by writing.
I suspect that AI is something that probably makes them feel threatened.
I think the future of writing belongs to great editors, not just great writers.
The future belongs to people with great ideas who use any means to convey them effectively.

Also, there will always be a market for writers who can tell great stories and use words in the most exciting and evocative ways. I don’t know that AI will ever replace that.

My opinion is that the person who consumes the content finds it to be decent.

Who gives a damn?

Also, I confess that I didn’t write this feature article—at least not the first draft. I used a combination of Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude, and Grammarly GO as part of an experiment to see if I could generate a worthwhile article that effectively provided information.

Actually, I didn’t like the results, and I am sending this out today later than usual because I rewrote the majority of it.

Normally, I use AI for all my articles, even just for spell-checking or grammar.

I wish it were as easy as telling ChatGPT what I wanted and having it spit out a well-written article. But it’s not that easy.

But I digress let’s dive into the state of the content generation today.

The Changing Landscape of Journalism

The advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is not only changing content creation in general but also changing journalism. As traditional news outlets struggle to adapt to the digital age, the industry faces significant challenges, including shrinking staff, tighter budgets, and increased competition from alternative media sources. Simultaneously, AI-generated content is becoming more prevalent, sparking debates about its societal implications. As the AI content creation market is projected to grow from $5.2 billion to $16.9 billion by 2028, examining the potential benefits, drawbacks, and ethical considerations surrounding this technology is crucial.

The Decline of Traditional News Outlets

Traditional news outlets, particularly newspapers, have declined for over two decades. The U.S. has lost one-third of its newspapers since 2005, with closures accelerating. As of 2023, there are roughly 6,000 newspapers left, down from 8,891 in 2005. This decline has led to significant job losses, with the journalism industry seeing over 21,400 job cuts in 2023. This decline is due to the rise of digital platforms, which disrupt traditional advertising models, and the increasing paper and printing costs.

Increased Pressures on Journalists

Journalists are facing increased pressures and workloads as news outlets struggle to adapt. Shrinking staff and budgets have led to shorter deadlines and heavier workloads, often relying on AI and other technologies to help cope. However, using AI in newsrooms has raised concerns about the quality and trustworthiness of journalistic content and the potential loss of newsroom autonomy.

Despite the challenges, there are significant opportunities for innovation and growth in journalism and AI-generated content. AI can help news organizations reimagine their business models and find new ways to engage audiences. Writers can focus on higher-level tasks by leveraging AI for efficiency and scalability. At the same time, AI handles repetitive aspects—sports scores and roundups, summarizing town meetings, and other tasks where drawing insights is unnecessary.

Citizen Journalists are the Future

Citizen journalism is conducted by people who are not professional journalists but disseminate information using websites, blogs, and social media.

I believe the future of our news will be a group of dedicated, trusted writers working independently on newsletters like this, YouTube, and other channels where we can build trust with those who share information.

A Case Study in New Journalism

The Twitter Files are a prime example of how we start to rely on individuals who build trust for themselves rather than for news organizations. The Twitter Files refer to internal Twitter documents released from December 2022 through March 2023. Twitter’s CEO, Elon Musk, made these documents public, providing them to journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and Lee Fang and authors Michael Shellenberger, David Zweig, and Alex Berenson shortly after acquiring Twitter in October 2021.

Coordinated with Musk, the releases detailed the company’s content moderation decisions and policies. They included topics such as content moderation of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop, visibility filtering, the suspension of Donald Trump’s account following the attack on the Capitol, communications between the FBI and Twitter’s Trust and Safety Team, and moderation of COVID-19 content.

The Twitter Files sparked various reactions, some viewing them as evidence of Twitter’s alleged liberal bias and others as showing the platform’s policy team grappling with complex moderation decisions. A significant point of contention was Musk and some conservatives' claim that the government had ordered Twitter to aid presidential candidate Joe Biden by suppressing the New York Post story, a claim for which no evidence was found.

In summary, the Twitter Files have shed light on the inner workings of Twitter’s content moderation practices and have been the subject of intense public and political discourse. While this kind of reporting is not independent investigative journalism, it evokes the likes of Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting on Watergate. It’s the kind of news that I think will become the norm even in the age of AI.

Public Perception and Ethical Concerns of AI-generated Content

Despite the benefits, AI-generated content raises public concerns. Online AI content has misled many Americans, and many consumers are concerned about the spread of false information by AI. These concerns highlight the need for transparency and accountability. There are many calls for companies to disclose when they use AI-generated content and for ethical guidelines and regulations. I disagree; it shouldn’t matter how that content is generated, only that it’s accurate and useful.

Risks and Benefits of AI-Generated Content

AI-generated content includes innocuous types, such as blog posts and product descriptions, and more problematic forms, like deepfakes. Deepfakes have the potential to spread misinformation and manipulate public opinion, leading to calls for greater regulation and detection tools. Ensuring the accuracy and integrity of AI-generated content is crucial, regardless of its form. In general, here’s what I think is important regarding AI-generated content.

Risks:

  • Quality Control: The over-reliance on AI-generated content can lead to errors, biases, and a lack of nuanced understanding, potentially damaging a brand’s reputation if inaccuracies are published. This is my biggest concern, as even I fall into the trap of over-relying on AI despite knowing better. We’ve already seen journalism under the weight of economic pressure reducing their fact-checking and going so far as letting Twitter, or X as it’s known now, provide fact-checking. Often with disastrous results.

  • Ethical Concerns: AI raises ethical issues, such as the potential spread of misinformation and loss of authenticity, which could undermine public trust in a brand. However, when it comes to authenticity, I think most readers will vote with their dollars, or at least their clicks, and flock to those publishers and brands they trust.

  • Job Displacement: As AI becomes more capable, there is a risk of significant job displacement, leading to workforce instability and requiring substantial retraining and upskilling of existing employees.

Benefits:

  • Cost Efficiency: AI can reduce the time and resources required for content creation, allowing enterprises to produce more content at a lower cost. For this newsletter, it didn’t, though. We aren’t there yet.

  • Enhanced Personalization: AI tools can analyze large datasets to create personalized content for specific audiences, improving engagement and customer satisfaction.

  • Scalability: Enterprises can leverage AI to scale their content production efforts, meeting the growing demand for digital content without significantly increasing operational costs.

Human-in-the-Loop Content Creation

We’ll still need human oversight for AI-generated content in the foreseeable future. Although AI might save time, humans must continue to review articles for quality. And we need systems to keep what we produce using AI accurate.

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

James Clear, Atomic Habits

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear suggests that while goals can provide direction and purpose, the systems we build drive long-term success and progress. He recommends focusing on the habits that lead to results, such as daily actions that support goals, also known as “atomic habits.”

As we expand our use of AI, I think we need to be committed to the process, which determines progress, and that people should be more concerned with their current trajectory than their current results.

That means that while AI is augmenting our systems, we still need to commit to keeping humans in the loop to continue making progress. For now, the system is a combination of AI-generated content and human editors who can turn information into stories that provide value.

Prompt of the Week

Prompt of the Week

One of the hardest things for me is to reply to or do outreach to develop a creative pitch and make it coherent.

I came up with this prompt not because I don’t have the ability but because I sometimes need a starter. It provides an interview for you to leverage an LLM (Claude, OpenAI, or another AI Chatbot) to pull it together in a compelling and complete pitch.

How to Use This Prompt:

You can cut and paste this prompt into ChatGPT, Bing or Claude and it should work. However, there’s a way to customize it.

To get the best results, go to the examples section and replace the examples with ones that reflect your style.

I created a couple of examples to make this a few-shot prompt (a few-shot prompt includes a couple of examples to guide the output). However, the prompt may give you better results when you use your examples. 

# Role
Expert in the art of persuasion and email copywriter for business.

# Objective
Generate an engaging and persuasive cold email to potential sponsors for The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise, adhering to specified guidelines.

## Formatting
- **Subject Line:** Craft a compelling and relevant subject line that captures the recipient’s interest, using [Target Person’s Interest/Industry] and [Your Purpose] as key elements.
- **Greeting:** Start with a friendly and professional greeting, personalized with the recipient’s name, [Recipient’s Name].
- **Introduction:** Briefly introduce yourself, including your name [Your Name] and your role [Your Role/Position].
- **Purpose of Email:** Clearly state the purpose of your email, aligning with [Your Purpose] and relevant to [Recipient’s Industry/Interest].
- **Value Proposition:** Explain the value you offer, relevant to [Recipient’s Industry/Interest].
- **Call to Action:** Include a specific call to action, making it clear and easy to follow.
- **Closing Remarks:** Conclude with a polite and optimistic closing remark.
- **Signature:** End with your formal signature, including your full name [Your Full Name], contact information [Your Contact Information], and any professional title or affiliation [Your Professional Title/Affiliation].

# Instructions
1. **Start with a Survey**
   - Don’t echo the prompt
   - Start the survey and wait for a response for each question before moving on. 
   - Begin by surveying the client to gather all necessary details.
   - Ask questions one at a time until you have all the information required.
   
2. **Craft a Subject Line**
   - Use [Target Person’s Interest/Industry] and [Your Purpose] as key elements.
   
3. **Greeting**
   - Start with "Hello" or "Hi" followed by the recipient's name [Recipient’s Name].
   
4. **Introduction**
   - Mention your name [Your Name] and your role [Your Role/Position].
   
5. **State Purpose of Email**
   - Clearly align with [Your Purpose] and make it relevant to [Recipient’s Industry/Interest].
   
6. **Value Proposition**
   - Highlight the benefits you can offer, considering the recipient’s [Industry/Interest].
   
7. **Call to Action**
   - Request a meeting, a response, or direct them to a resource. Make it clear and simple to follow.
   
8. **Closing Remarks**
   - Express hope for their response or future interaction.
   
9. **Signature**
   - Include your full name [Your Full Name], contact information [Your Contact Information], and professional title or affiliation [Your Professional Title/Affiliation].

# Examples
## Example Email for Cold Outreach to Introduce Sponsorship Opportunity
**Subject Line:** Drive Innovation with The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise 🚀
**Body:**
Hello [Name],
I see that you have a keen interest in artificial intelligence. You’re about to embark on a journey that will redefine your brand’s visibility and impact. Here’s why partnering with The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise is your next big leap:
- **Industry Leadership:** Align your brand with cutting-edge AI insights and thought leadership.
- **Targeted Reach:** Engage with a dedicated audience passionate about AI and enterprise technology.
- **Exclusive Content:** Feature in our high-quality articles, reports, and newsletters.
Think of us as your strategic partner in reaching the AI community, only smarter and more efficient. Ready to transform your brand’s presence? Click [here] and we can discuss further.
Cheers to our potential collaboration,
Mark R. Hinkle  
Editor in Chief  
The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise  
[Contact Information]  
[LinkedIn Profile]

## Example Email for Cold Outreach for a Sponsorship Proposal
**Subject Line:** Elevate Your Brand with The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise
**Body:**
Hi [Recipient’s Name],
I hope this email finds you well. I’m Mark Hinkle, the Editor in Chief of The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise. At our publication, we specialize in delivering cutting-edge insights and trends in AI and enterprise technology.
I recently came across your innovative work with [other brand] on [example post/collaboration], and I was thoroughly impressed. The creativity and impact of that project resonated with us, and we believe that a sponsorship partnership between us could yield similarly outstanding results.
We are eager to explore how we can work together. By partnering with The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise, you can gain [specific benefits, such as increased visibility, access to our audience, exclusive promotional opportunities, etc.], ensuring that it’s not just a sponsorship but a mutually beneficial journey.
Are you intrigued by the possibilities? Let’s discuss this further and turn ideas into action.
Looking forward to your response.
Warm regards,
Mark Hinkle  
Editor in Chief  
The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise  
[Contact Information]  
[Website: www.theaienteprise.io](http://www.theaienteprise.io/)

## Example Email for Cold Outreach for a Sponsorship Partnership
**Subject Line:** Elevate Your AI Solutions with The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise
**Body:**
Hello John Smith,
I hope this message finds you well. I’m Mark Hinkle, the Editor in Chief of The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise, a leading publication at the forefront of AI and enterprise technology.
I’m reaching out because I understand the unique challenges and opportunities in the AI industry. At The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise, we specialize in providing in-depth analysis and thought leadership that can enhance your brand’s reputation and reach.
Our platform is specifically designed to complement businesses like yours, ensuring a robust, scalable, and impactful presence in the AI community. We believe that our expertise in content and audience engagement can significantly benefit your operations and help in scaling your influence.
Would you be interested in exploring this further? You can easily book a meeting with me to discuss potential sponsorships and how we can contribute to your success. Just click here: [Meeting Link], and choose a time that works best for you.
Looking forward to the possibility of working together and bringing a new dimension to your brand.
Warm regards,
Mark Hinkle  
Editor in Chief  
The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise  
[Your Contact Information]

I appreciate your support.

Mark R. Hinkle

Your AI Sherpa,

Mark R. Hinkle
Editor-in-Chief
Connect with me On LinkedIn 
Follow Me on Twitter 

BONUS CONTENT: The AI Boost 

Perplexity AI’s Discover Daily Podcast

In the vein of AI-generated content, I have found one use that I think is particularly good. This comes from Perplexity, my favorite AI-powered search. This podcast dives daily into innovation, science, and culture.

The episodes are drawn from Perplexity's Discover feed and brought to life by ElevenLabs' voices. This podcast is designed to fit seamlessly into your day, whether you're on the move or making the most of the in-between moments.

It’s an exciting use of AI that provides good information efficiently, and I don’t think you’ll care that AI-generated it.

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