Advert exec Dave Trott as soon as identified the dictionary definition of “content material” to unpack his distaste for that time period in advertising and marketing:

“Content material (noun): every little thing that’s inside a container; the contents of a field.”

“So there it’s: we’re within the delivery enterprise. That’s what occurred to what we used to name ‘the thought.’ The concept has turn out to be no matter goes into the field: simply content material. It may very well be something, it’s not essential…

“Content material is seen as simply stuff. The stuff that goes into the area that’s there to be stuffed…

“And there’s my drawback with the phrase ‘content material.’ It doesn’t matter what the content material is. The content material is now simply one thing to refill the area.”

Dave’s perspective got here to thoughts as I thought of the usage of synthetic intelligence in advertising and marketing content material over the previous couple of years.

In 2020, OpenAI introduced the newest model of their text-generation expertise known as GPT-3. It’s able to writing absolutely anything you’ll be able to think about with only a few inputs. The output could be generic and repetitive, however the high quality of the writing is a step change over earlier generations. More and more it sounds human.

Earlier this 12 months, Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller described AI Generated Content material as “spam” that was in opposition to Google’s tips. But he admitted that Google could not be capable to detect whether or not this content material was written by AI or people.

Naturally, AI is being adopted by entrepreneurs for all kinds of promoting content material. Whether or not creating articles wholesale, or used as a software to assist with a few of the discrete duties of writing (ideating, researching, outlining, writing, modifying), synthetic intelligence is more and more part of the method.

However it’s essential to keep in mind that AI is only a software. It might probably assist create create “content material” extra effectively, however is it content material that’s price creating? Is it ownable, distinctive, and differentiated? Does it have a motive for being? Or is it simply created to refill an area?

We are able to’t break via the muddle by including to it.

Listed below are just a few associated cartoons I’ve drawn through the years: