5 Things You Need to Know About ChatGPT
By now you have probably heard of the artificial intelligence chatbot taking the internet by storm…
ChatGPT is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) that is trained to answer questions and prompts including everything from, “Write a poem about spring. ” to “What is the child custody law in Maryland?” This conversational chatbot will write a response to your question in a matter of seconds. You can even ask it to revise what it wrote without providing concrete feedback. Early adopters of the technology have also assisted in its sudden rise by compiling resources on how to prompt the AI to get the best use out of it.
If you’re skeptical of how powerful and intelligent this AI tool is, it recently passed the bar exam and some business school exams.
At Correnti Marketing, we set out to determine how business owners can best use this tool to elevate their brands—and when to proceed with caution. Here are 5 things you need to know about ChatGPT.
1. What is ChatGPT good for?
ChatGPT is helpful for quite a bit, but in the business world we believe it is best for:
Researching. Google will always be a fan-favorite for all internet questions, but ChatGPT is giving it a run for its money (albeit it’s also free… for the time being). This being said, there’s something about asking an AI to answer your questions and having the ability to have a conversation with it. This takes Google searching to a whole other level. Note, ChatGPT does not provide sources for its responses, so you have no way to verify where the information is coming from. We encourage you to verify the accuracy of the information you receive from ChatGPT by checking an additional, reputable source.
Writer’s block. If you are struggling to write the first draft of a webpage or even an important email, ChatGPT can help get you started. Keep in mind, you will still need a writer’s touch to make the best of it and build off of that launching point.
Creative brainstorming. Like writer’s block, we all hit roadblocks when it comes to creative brainstorming. Perhaps you are trying to come up with a clever name for a podcast—ChatGPT can definitely help get the creative juices flowing.
Collaboration. If you are a solopreneur or work in a silo, ChatGPT can serve as a creative collaborator on projects.
2. What is ChatGPT not great for?
ChatGPT is not human, so it lacks the personal touch that comes with being sentient. We do not recommend using it for:
Thought leadership + Ghostwriting. Do not use ChatGPT to write blogs and other thought leadership pieces on your behalf. Will it write the piece for you? Yes. Will it have any nuanced touches to it that make a written piece truly valuable and effective? No, the chatbot is not able to understand or know whether its statements actually make sense. And it won’t sound like your voice anyways, because your voice is one of a kind.
Branding. Please, for the love of all branding experts, do not use ChatGPT for your business or personal branding. We are holding our breath, waiting for brands to have the same or similar messaging because AI wrote it for them. ChatGPT cannot be authentic to your brand, so don’t let it create one for you.
Professional advice. AI does not have the understanding and professional perspective that comes from years of experience in your field. It is a tool, not a professional.
The most up-to-date information. ChatGPT's data is currently limited up until the year 2021. Meaning, the chatbot is unaware of news or events that have occurred since then. This is a major factor to keep in mind if your industry has updated since 2021, or continues to update regularly or frequently.
3. The Ethical Dilemma
You probably are wondering—is using ChatGPT cheating? Or is this today’s equivalent to the time when calculators came into existence, allowing us to adapt and integrate technology to make our lives easier? We’re not here to provide your moral compass, but we’re also not a fan of copy + paste. We absolutely do not recommend allowing ChatGPT to fully take the reigns when it comes to writing content.
4. A Note About Plagiarism
From an intellectual property and plagiarism perspective, ChatGPT raises some serious concerns. Our team did some experimenting and found that the chatbot was fairly good at coming up with original content, but there is no quality control to ensure that you will not encounter plagiarism. And our trademark litigation friends recommend proceeding with extreme caution.
5. What is the Future of ChatGPT?
Only time will tell where the chatbot will go from here. Right now, it is free, open-source software that is only limited by its capacity. Sometimes, you will find the software has too many users on it at once and you have to wait your turn.
Considering how popular this software has become, we anticipate it will have a paid version sometime in the future. Canva, a now widely used, user-friendly, web-version of graphic design, used to be free until they added premium features at a monthly cost. We believe ChatGPT will follow a similar path moving forward.
The Bottom Line
ChatGPT is a useful tool to give us a boost in a variety of ways, though it is still a relatively new technology and its capabilities and ethicality are likely to continue to evolve.
If you have any questions, please reach out. We would love to continue the conversation. And if you are looking for help with your brand messaging, website copy, or blog writing, we are branding experts—with a pulse!—and are here to help. Explore our branding services and content marketing services, and contact us to get started.
