TMI #49: AI report card: Dean’s List or Disciplinary List?

Remember Report Card Day?

That dreaded double-sided thick cream-colored paper stock folded like a book was always distributed on a Friday afternoon in a manila envelope with my name on it.

I’d throw it in my backpack until I could sneak a peek on the walk home (aka, weekend forecast for my social life?) before sharing it with mom and dad.

Today, my kids run in the door on report card day and want to know if I downloaded it from the school’s online portal.

It’s a different world, but one thing hasn’t changed: The way we evaluate people and products, from the universal A to a big fat F.

Here’s my quick report card on a topic all the rage for writers these days: AI writing tools.

LinkedIn posts from blogs: A-

Lately.ai is great at one thing – and one thing only: Taking a link to a published blog or the full blog text and breaking it down into 20+ options for a social media post in less than 30 seconds.

Do the posts need to be manipulated by a human? Absolutely. But, if you can shave off a few minutes by using this tool, or eliminate your LinkedIn writer’s block, this is a great tool.

Statistics and current events: F

When ChatGPT and Writer are asked to source stats within a body of copy, they will. However, AI tools were trained on the Internet pre-2020, so all stats and data are at best three years old — and lack footnote or link function for attribution. At Zissman Media, our standard is to use stats only from the last two years, and source each one accurately, so unfortunately AI can't help us research.

Here’s an example I searched with the blog prompt “Prediction of claims costs for spring 2023” in Writer’s Co-Write feature. Notice stats predicting 2023 storms are from 2017 and 2018. 😂

Writer’s block: A+

I’ve been writing headlines for 28 years. Having another brain to ideate with in the moment is invaluable. AI tools can eliminate writer’s block and get my brain working again. I can cut and paste and take phrases and ideas to create the headline I’m looking for.

Here’s a sample from Writer’s “Co-write” feature, headline creation, for a blog our team wrote. While we didn’t love them, they certainly gave us a running start to create something we did like. Of course, ChatGPT and Lately help with idea creation as well.

Detailed outline and blog: F

A few weeks ago, I spent 2+ hours prompting Writer’s Co-write feature to create a full blog post on the new SECURE 2.0 Act. It didn’t go well. The Act passed in December 2022 so AI can’t access any of the latest info.

Instead, the information AI provided for the outline and then eventually the blog post was not the deep dive I wanted, even when I changed the language and outline to steer it in the right direction.

Bottom line, when it comes to general content creation, AI is a great, emerging tool for writers and amateurs, but nothing to worry about for those of us creating bespoke content that differentiates brands from their peers.

New and unique content simply doesn't exist on the web. It exists in the minds of subject matter experts and their writers.

This made me think of Dr. Seuss’ famous line: “There is no one alive who is you-er than you.”

While the jury is still out on if AI writing tools, there is something exciting about new efficiencies that challenge the status quo of your entire industry.

I’m hopeful they’ll help us all take our game to the next level.

Let me know what AI tools have worked for you – and what others I should try!

All the best,
Mindi 😊

P.S. The image for this post was created using Fotor with the prompt: “A girl holding her report card.”