If you haven’t seen the changes in content creation in recent years, you may not have been paying attention. Writers no longer spend hours staring at a blank screen, yearning for that moment of clarity and impetus. Instead, we have new tools like generative AI for content creation – a hyper-productive intern that never sleeps – turning out ideas, drafts, and even full blown articles in an instant.
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Using generative AI for content creation is all well and good. Nothing wrong with it overall. However, we need to make sure that we aren’t losing anything in the process, that we aren’t, in some ways, reducing the effectiveness of our content through efficiency. Sometimes, AI can be a powerful ally in ideation and drafting, but it tends to serve up content that can be a bit too… robotic.
Prompt: Please write a short story about a spider.
Response (o3-mini-high):
In the quiet twilight of an enchanted garden, a little spider named Luna began her nightly work. Unlike other spiders, Luna’s web wasn’t built merely to catch passing insects—it was a tapestry of dreams. Each silken strand was carefully spun to capture the glow of fireflies, the shimmer of dewdrops, and the soft whispers of the night breeze.
Now, this might seem fine on first inspection, but after you spend some time with generative AI, you will notice it loves certain words, and uses them a lot. Two of these are “enchanted” and “tapestry”.
The Bright Side: Ideation and Drafts at Lightning Speed
The deadline is looming and your imagination has ground to a halt. You don’t see yourself actually finishing on time, but you aren’t ready to give up. From the corner of your eye – a glimmer of hope. A click here, a request there, and generative AI gives you fresh angles, catchy headlines, and even full prose that can help you jumpstart your writing process. At your fingertips is a rapid-fire and virtually never ending stream of ideas you can run with. It feels a bit like magic.
And it’s pretty good, too. Generative AI is getting better every day. Recently, there are findings that people can’t tell human poetry from AI poetry, and have a tendency to prefer poetry produced by AI. We know it knows how to write, so why not just – let it write?
Prompt: Write a poem about a subject of your choice.
Response (o3-mini-high):
In the hush of midnight blue,
The ocean sings a secret tune,
Whispering tales of distant shores
Where dreams and memories bloom.Waves, like gentle hands, caress
The sands of time with tender grace,
Each ripple a soft, murmured verse,
A hymn of nature’s endless space.Beneath the shimmering moon’s soft glow,
Mysteries dance in salt-kissed air,
An eternal ballet of ebb and flow—
In the ocean’s embrace, all souls repair.
Not bad, but can you trust it with your business information?
The Dark Side: Hallucinations and Generic Outputs
Because it isn’t magic. AI isn’t infallible. It may be the single largest issue plaguing AI providers, and a major setback to mass adoption. As good as it is, we can’t trust that it’s accurate because it can suffer from “hallucinations” – a way of saying it can confidently create material that isn’t true at all.
This can be a real issue if the person asking the AI to write isn’t educated in the subject matter, because it’s difficult to know when the AI is wrong. This means fact checking your AI’s writing is paramount. Many people have already been caught up in scandals – from politicians to scientists, for letting generative AI do their thinking and their writing.
Prompt: Tell me about the most recent discoveries regarding planetary formation in the Andromeda Galaxy.
Response (o3-mini-high, simulated hallucination)
Recent observations from the James Webb Telescope, combined with data analyzed by the newly operational Kepler-IV array (a network of ground-based telescopes in Chile and Namibia), have provided unprecedented insights into planetary formation within the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). One of the most groundbreaking discoveries is the confirmation of ‘silicon-carbonate rings’ around young stars in the M31-P4 cluster.
These rings, unlike the primarily silicate-based dust disks observed in our own galaxy, are rich in complex silicon-carbonate molecules. This suggests a fundamentally different pathway for planet formation…
Now, this sounds very plausible and technical, but it has many facts wrong, starting with: there is no Kepler-IV array, but there is a Kepler 4b exoplanet.
Remember, AI doesn’t know when it is wrong, and it’s built to be helpful. Not answering is not helpful, so it almost always answers, and will answer incorrectly and confidently if it doesn’t have the information.
The Human in the Loop: Your Content’s Best Friend
You are still the factor that makes the difference. Your eye for detail, as well as your specific experiences and expertise, gives you the ability to tweak AI-generated drafts, making sure the content flows well and stands up to inspection. Thus, writing becomes a creative partnership that brings the best of both worlds to the front.
Make AI your brainstorm partner, not your ghostwriter. Use it to break through blocks, generate structure, and explore new angles. Rely on your voice to bring clarity, emotion, and credibility to the final draft. Finalize with the secret sauce – adding humanity and personality while fact checking and editing to speak to your readers.
Over-reliance on the output of generative AI is already causing issues in some of the most important areas to progress. Studies on content in scientific publishing is showing an unprecedented change in submissions. Through analysis of the writing, using words that AI “likes” to use but humans don’t use as much, researchers have determined that as many as 60,000 scientific papers written by AI may have been submitted last year. Increase in the usage of AI since then indicates it could already be a much greater number.
Speaking of over-reliance on AI; we have to be careful that we don’t lose our own critical thinking skills in our use of AI. We can only maintain that edge by being highly engaged, constantly fact-checking, and exercising our own writing skills. If we don’t, the risks are high.
From a recent study on over-reliance on AI:
Four studies examined the complex implications of integrating AI tools into educational settings. Abd-Alrazaq et al. (2023) cautioned the propensity of generative AI tools to fabricate so-called facts and generate false information convincingly. This may lead users to place undue trust in these technologies, escalating the risk of dependency. Such over-reliance could impede the cultivation of essential skills in medical students, including critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication.
The SEO Angle: AI Detectors and Search Ranking Woes
We aren’t done with the foibles of generative AI in your content strategy.
Far from it.
As generative AI becomes more prevalent, so does the need to reliably detect AI content. So, what does that mean for your content, your site and your authority? Well, lets ask Google:
“Our advice for creators considering AI-generation
As explained, however content is produced, those seeking success in Google Search should be looking to produce original, high-quality, people-first content demonstrating qualities E-E-A-T.
Creators can learn more about the concept of E-E-A-T on our Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content help page. In addition, we’ve updated that page with some guidance about thinking in terms of Who, How, and Why in relation to how content is produced.”
So, while Google allows AI generated content and won’t necessarily ding you for it, it needs to be people-first and high quality content. If your content doesn’t provide unique information or deliver it in a human-centric way, you can suffer in ranking. You can’t let AI be the authority in your business space. You have to be your authority.
If you’re using AI to scale your content strategy, now’s the time to review your editorial workflow. Who’s responsible for editing and reviewing AI drafts? What tools are you using to verify sources? Are you aligning your output with Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines?
Action Step: Audit your last five AI-assisted pieces. What’s strong? What feels generic? What needs a stronger human touch?
Finding the Balance
It’s clear that AI can be a powerful accelerator in your content workflow—but like any tool, how you use it determines whether it helps or harms. Before you hit publish on your next AI-assisted article, ask yourself:
- Have I fact-checked the key claims?
- Does this sound like me, or does it feel like a machine?
- Is this delivering original, people-first value?
Build a checklist. Establish a review system. Make sure there’s always a human in the loop. The right balance turns AI from a shortcut into a strategic advantage.
As the world of content creation evolves, it becomes clear that while AI can do a lot of the heavy lifting, the final masterpiece still needs the hard-coded fingerprint of human creativity. It needs knowledge and expertise, it needs experience. It needs you in the loop, to add the things that make your creativity yours. Your whimsy, or sense of humor, or just the way you want a certain paragraph to… feel.
Happy writing—and don’t forget to keep that human touch front and center! Whether you’re educating, entertaining, or persuading, your perspective is the edge AI can’t replicate. Let AI do the heavy lifting, but never let it replace what only you can bring.
