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Should you use AI to write blog posts?
I assume this question dances around in your blogging dome.
For good reason; AI has changed the world for better or worse.
Softening my AI-scarred heart influenced me to change my artificial intelligence tune recently.
I came down on AI hard a while back.
Perhaps I can ease up a bit.
AI is a blogging lightning rod. Some hate it. Others love it. Some claim to generate steady profits by using AI to handle work extensively. Others fear that AI will take their jobs sooner than later. Some fear an AI-induced apocalypse; “Terminator”, anyone?
I want to share my thoughts on this polarizing topic.
I have been through more booms and busts than most bloggers. Being a 17 year blogging veteran gives one the upper hand in that department.
Hundreds of bloggers who have since vanished warned me about my resistance to following “game-changing” trends.
Some of those blogging suckers died out 17 years ago at the beginning of my blogging career.
Most blew by like a blogging tumbleweed before disappearing into cyber oblivion.
Is AI a Boom or Bust?
AI may benefit humanity like few technological breakthroughs.
AI may hurt people unlike any technological “advancement”.
What will happen with AI?
Whomever decides why they use it dictates the direction of artificial intelligence.
Individual motivators determine if AI helps or hurts human beings.
Like any tool, how you use it influences how the tool affects people.
Bloggers who use AI to be truly helpful from a genuine approach can benefit their readers.
Bloggers who use AI for quick profits will severely hurt their readers.
Why you use AI determines its purpose.
Let me give you a clear example.
Do Not Get Left Behind
Bloggers often use AI to complete specific jobs for the fear of being left behind.
From my experience, most bloggers seem motivated from FOMO; the Fear Of Missing Out.
AI bloggers fear missing out on:
- easy traffic
- easy blogging income
- the “set it and forget it” promise bandied about by some AI proponents
This is no bueno. This ain’t good.
Fear motivates you to do destructive things. Doing destructive things hurts you and your readers.
*YOU* fear being left behind *yourself*. Being motivated by a loss of traffic and money, that fear in your mind scares you into using something artificial which dissolves your unique voice, mutes your message and makes your blog 100% forgettable among millions who use similar AI prompts.
How does this help your readers?
It doesn’t help them at all. Most exit stage left the moment your blog sounds like millions of other generic-sounding bloggers. Do you suffer a generic-sounding 600 word blog post basically identical to millions of posts spawned by identical AI prompts? I don’t think so. Yet AI bloggers never hesitate to spawn generic content that the individuals would never read themselves.
What happens when your readers disappear? Blog traffic and blogging income disappear.
Whose fault is this?
You chose to be motivated by the fear of being left behind which guarantees that you will become left behind.
Bloggers fear some negative outcome unfolding then chaotically act to ensure that the negative outcome manifests.
The full process unfolded internally. Everything began and ended in the mind, even if externals appeared to unfold with these circumstances.
Other destructive AI blogger drivers: greed, desperation, delusion and the wanton desire to get something for nothing.
Consider the alternative.
Use AI to Be Truly Helpful
Imagine if you blog to be truly helpful.
For example, even though this post ranks at position 1 for a “does ai benefit bloggers” query I added a few hundred words to update the post. I felt like the original version seemed thin. Beefing it up feels most helpful for you.
Genuinely helpful bloggers may use artificial intelligence to brainstorm blog post ideas or to set up a blog post outline.
Truly helpful bloggers write content from the heart to blog compassionately. Authentic bloggers imagine themselves in their reader’s shoes before writing content. I did it for this post. I considered Blogging From Paradise readers who use AI to brainstorm and set up outlines. Yep; this is one reason why I no longer take a hard line approach against AI and blogging.
Temporarily, struggling to brainstorm or establish an outline paralyzes some bloggers into waiting on the blogging sidelines. Using AI as a light aid may ease bloggers through these mental blocks.
Tools help bloggers to help their readers if used from the proper perspective.
Tools give you a little blogging boost.
Imagine AI to Be a Bandage Not a Crutch
I played basketball through junior college.
Picture how many times I suffered a floor burn after diving for loose balls. Yeah; I was scrappy.
Did I apply a bandage to the floor burn? Or did I use a crutch to hobble around on for 3 weeks after suffering the skin loss?
I applied a bandage and kept on playing. I used a seeming tool for a little boost. My personal effort, hooping skills and willingness to practice my ass off made the difference. What role did the bandage serve? I felt slightly less discomfort after wrapping up.
Frame AI in a similar light.
Write your blog posts. Going the AI blogging route is like stumbling around on crutches to “aid” your floor burn. Foolish at best and tragic at worst, your writing skills and audience gradually disappear from an imagined injury.
Relying on something not at all necessary diminishes your strength, destroys your creativity, dulls your imagination, kills your power and obliterates your skills. Picture a professional marathon runner choosing to become wheel chair bond for 6 months because he stubbed his toe. Do you think he will be a world class marathon runner in 6 months? I don’t think so, toots. He will be an invalid based on making a completely insane choice.
AI bloggers who forego their perfectly capable, carefully honed writing skills in favor of prompts puking generic output will be like the marathon runner who chose a wheel chair and muscular atrophy over continuing to train like a champion because he experienced a stubbed toe.
What’s the Verdict?
Use AI as a light aid to be most helpful for your readers.
Write your own content.
But feel free to use artificial intelligence to brainstorm, set up outlines or maybe to handle completely mindless processes. For example, Facebook employs AI to handle spam in my groups for bloggers. So far so good, as this tactic yields pretty much a 100% success rate in swatting spam.
Beware framing AI as a crutch or a wheel chair one uses for overcoming a hang nail. Never cripple yourself; this does not work out well for you or your readers.
People follow empowered leaders who serve genuinely from the heart.
Blogging leaders use tools for a little help not as end all, be all solutions.
AI helps you or hurts you based on how you use it.
Readers simply mirror your intent back to you.
