Key takeaways
- Humans and machines can both write content – but not in the same way
- ChatGPT is creating excitement today – but useful tools have been around for years
- An AI content generator can support and assist your human writers
- AI writing can make the business case for content marketing even better
- AI-written content can customize and scale in ways a human can’t
Why is Contentoo big on AI text generators?
You’ve heard of AI content generator sensation ChatGPT. Maybe older apps too, like Jasper.ai and Grammarly, or less-familiar ones like RYTR and ContentBot. We know them all – and like them.
But why? After all, we’re a content marketing platform – and our USP is that we help you engage with the top 10% of human freelance talent, like writers, translators, and strategists. Shouldn’t we be out smashing the machines, not praising them?
No – and here’s the reason. Our objective is to help you scale up your content marketing. To the level where it increases demand from prospects and customers – in other words, where it’s a profitable asset for your business. And to reach that objective, we use a range of strategies. Human writers, yes, but equipped with the best software tools. Human translators, yes, but with machine help for accuracy and efficiency. And – when appropriate – content written by software alone. Because we want to make both people and machines the most effective they can be.
That’s why we’re just as positive about AI content generation as the human-created kind, and why our skills base covers a range of Al writing tools. In this blog, we’ll share what we know about them.
What content can an AI content generator write?
First up, let’s recognize that AI generated text isn’t right for all content needs. Just as a novelist can’t write an advertising campaign, and a technical translator probably won’t do a great piece for haute couture. Different requirements demand different applications. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Today, the best use for artificial intelligence is as a research assistant rather than original author – summarizing what’s important about a topic, reducing complex ideas to their most important parts, and helping build an article’s structure and key messages. ChatGPT, for example, is an incredibly useful source of ideas for blog writing – just ask it a question your audience is interested in, and you’ll get an article with plenty of Google Juice in it as a result.
An AI content generator is also amazing when it comes to repetitive content that’s boring for a human to write – think CTAs, sign-offs, and subheads. If you’re A/B testing, an AI writer can generate a dozen – or a thousand – variations on your call-to-action for you, ready to split-test in a CRM email. Or if you’re banging your head against the wall trying to dream up product captions for 100 similar SKUs, an AI can save time by suggesting alternatives. It’s also good for any kind of set-structure content, like a newspaper’s daily weather report. (AI content generators linked to weather data are already being used for this, no human journalist needed.)
(Side note: there’s a rumour Google “doesn’t like” AI-generated content; this is untrue. Google dislikes incomplete content that isn’t a comprehensive answer to a search query. Duplicated, cut-and-pasted, and (worst of all) plagiarised content also doesn’t rank, for obvious reasons. But search engines have no fundamental objection to AI copywriting – for the same reason as us. It ranks you according to whether people find your content useful. Not on who wrote it.)
But let’s not forget how these AI article writers work. They’re *artificially* intelligent, not naturally intelligent, in the same way an artificial football pitch isn’t natural grass. They don’t know what the words mean; they have no understanding of deeper concepts like society or culture. As long as you understand this basic difference, you’re set for a productive experience with AI writing generators.
Our top 5 free AI tools for content creation
But what are the best AI content generators? Here are Contentoo’s top picks to try out and experiment with for free.
1. RYTR: a collection of templates
You may not have heard of RYTR – but the copy-focussed AI writer has two advantages. First, it’s based on OpenAI’s GPT3 Large Language Model – the same database that drives ChatGPT. Second, it’s pre-configured to generate text in the form you need: there are specific templates for headlines, taglines, captions, and product descriptions. And its claimed 5,000,000 users can’t all be wrong.
Of course, it has limits. But Rytr seems to be the best AI content generator for generating rough copy. Ready for a human to add the magic to, or summaries and structures that give you a useful outline to work from. The longer the content you want, the more work you’ll have to do. Which, of course, is fine, since it’s longer content where humans add most value.
2. ContentBot: churn out web pages, fast
ContentBot also aims for a specific market: most of its users use it to write large numbers of web pages that increase their web footprint. Like Rytr, it’s based on GPT3, but also makes use of its own LLM called TinySeed AI.
Again, there are strengths and weaknesses. Users report great success when solving writer’s block: you can ask ContentBot for article ideas of up to 5,000 words. And unlike some tools, ContentBot doesn’t cut-and-paste answers from anywhere without attribution. If you’ve got a well-described set of 100 web pages that need creating, or want to recast existing content for better SEO or sales focus, give ContentBot a try.
3. Jasper.ai: established with a human touch
Jasper.ai is perhaps the best-known of the older AI writing tools – with good reason. Many of its users have a slightly different goal to original content creation: they use it to improve existing content, or rework it in ways that appeal to different audiences. (Like turning a product description into a sales page.) It claims you’ll generate content 10x faster – realistically, reviewers say it’s about 5x.
It’s easy to use – just choose a template, enter some keywords, and hit Generate. It’s fast and fun. There’s also a paid “Boss Mode”, with human-curated templates for common content structures (like instruction lists). This is the way we see AI generated text developing in the market: lots of machine help, but always a human in the frame.
At Contentoo we are finalising our own AI tool. If you want to stay up-to-date, please sign up here.
4. Writesonic: so many options
India-based Writesonic is another GPT-based AI content generator, although it uses the earlier GPT2 LLM. Don’t be put off by its confusing website – it’s a strong tool, with all the usual features and a focus on generating finished articles you can put on your blog or social media channel.
Digital marketers will like the way it can generate a lot of copy, fast – and provide alternatives in the same time. While it’s not ready-to-publish, like many other tools, many of these AI-written articles will only need checking, proofreading, and tweaking before going live. Why not try it for yourself?
5. Scalenut AI: a platform too
We thought twice about including Scalenut – it’s a content marketing platform with technology for publishing as well as creating content, which are also pluses of Contentoo! But in a healthy market there are always competitors – and we’re happy to compete with this interesting set of AI content generation tools.
The app isn’t so much an AI writing generator as a marketing application that uses AI. It has tools for SEO discovery, competitive analysis, content planning, and topic suggestion – and can produce reasonable blogs and SEO pages in minutes. If that sounds great, consider Scalenut … but give your friends at Contentoo a call first.
Do I need to edit the articles generated?
We hope it’s clear by now: none of these tools can reliably produce original content that’s creative and interesting to read without human assistance. Even the best need editing; many others will need rewriting or reworking to get your Tone of Voice (ToV) across.
Also note, though, this isn’t a negative. The goal is not “hand over our copy to an AI”; it’s to scale up your content generation. If these tools can make your human freelance copywriter twice as productive, that’s a win.
How safe is it to use these AI tools?
There are dangers. Some schools have banned ChatGPT; universities are stepping up the plagiarism detection programmes; marketing departments are discovering what sounds accurate and well-supported is sometimes blatantly wrong. There’s even a term: “ChatGPT hallucination”, referring to content produced by the app that describes things that don’t exist.
Fortunately, it’s easy to avoid these risks. Just treat AI content generation for what it is: a tool. Any tool can be used productively or dangerously; just make sure you know the differences. Or ask someone who does.
The big question: can I use an AI Content generator for my blogs?
Without doubt, you can – and thousands are doing so. For many types of content, and with a little human editing for accuracy, it’s perfectly adequate. There’s just one problem: since so many use the GPT3 Large Language Model, and non-OpenAI models use much the same statistical techniques, copy written by these AI writing generators often sounds the same.
And the last thing you want is for your copy to sound like everyone else’s.
So while you can use AI tools to generate informative, structured, SEO-optimised text that answers many of your customers’ needs precisely, be aware that the text will lack the human touch. Your readers might find reading it a bit more of a chore. And your brand might feel that little less individual as a result.
That’s why we at Contentoo believe the future will be a wonderful blending of machine intelligence and human creativity. Not competition, but mutual advantage. And we’d like to share those advantages with you.
