ChatGPT is a hot topic and an even hotter tool for businesses and individuals who need assistance responding to clients and generating content. There is no doubt that this is part of the brave new world of AI and it is here to stay. But does AI leave room for a human response or will it usurp our role completely?

To answer this question, we’re going to take a look at OpenAI’s ChatGPT App, and explain what it is and how it works. We’ll also outline the pros and cons of using AI as the voice of your business and steps you can take to protect your company’s own original content.

WHAT IS CHATGPT

Let’s start with purpose and concept of ChatGPT. The developers OpenAI describe ChatGPT as a large language model (LLM) AI aimed at producing human-like text and holding ‘chats’ with humans.   The ‘GPT’ in the name is an abbreviation of Generative Pre-trained Transformer, which is the learning model used by the app. Most people are using the free ChatGPT 3.5 and there is also ChatGPt-4, which is only available to account holders subscribing to ChatGPT Plus.

The difference between the free and subscription versions is that the 3.5 has a short-term memory of up to 8,000 words, whereas version 4’s short-term memory is considerably larger, at 64,000 words. It can also scrape text from a website if you provide the URL and has multilingual functions.

HOW CHATGPT WORKS

Using the App is simple, requests or questions known as prompts are typed into a text box and sent AI will respond to the request and provide suggestions. How the App is able to respond is not simple, it requires a large brain to come up with this state-of-the-art technology.

WHAT IS A PROMPT?

In order to initiative the process, it is necessary to use a prompt, which is how you ask for the information or start a chat with ChatGPT. The more specific the prompt (or question), the better the answer will be.  By providing ChatGPT with a clear and concise message, you get better answers and instigate better conversations.

TYPES OF INFORMATION REQUESTED BY A PROMPT

ChatGPT can provide useful information that can help you with the every day running of your business, not just for writing articles. It is possible to request information covering a wide spectrum of topics from responding to general information enquiries to problem solving techniques and rephrasing a tricky sentence to sound more formal. Here are just some of the ways in which ChatGPT AI can make your life easier:

• Information queries
• Problem solving
• Creative content
• Opinions or advice
• Language and writing
• Recommendations (products or services)

HOW TO PROMPT?

Now that you know how much assistance you can get from AI, the next step is to learn how to prompt. As mentioned above, the more succinct and to the point your prompt is, the better intel you will receive.

Here are 4 simple steps to using ChatGPT prompts:

1. Specify the format.
   Provide detailed and concise instructions or questions in order to receive the most accurate and relevant response.
2. Simplify complex questions.
   Break down complex questions into several more focused enquiries in order to improve the response.
3. Provide feedback.
   Where it is appropriate give feedback on ChatGPT’s responses, indicating what worked well and what could be improved. The more data provided, the easier it is for the AI to provide better responses.
4. Verifying the data.
   ChatGPT gathers information from all types of sources and subjects. You should always verify that the information is correct, as it could have been garnered from an incorrect source, and relevant to your query.

REDLINE’S FAVOURITE AND MOST USEFUL PROMPTS

As a busy marketing agency, ChatGPT can be extremely useful as a time saving device. It can kick-start the creative process by providing ideas for campaigns, which can then be created by our team.  Here are some examples of our favourite prompts that we use to get the ball rolling:

1. Write 10 subject lines for emails about [insert topic].
2. Create 5 distinct CTAs and buttons for [insert your product]
3. Act as a translator. I’ll submit a body of text in English and I’d like to you translate it to German and analyse it for spelling and grammatical errors.
4. Write a comprehensive guide to [insert topic]
5. Re-write this Instagram post for Twitter. Keep the post to 250 characters. [INSERT POST].

PROS AND CONS OF USING CHATGPT FOR COPYWRITING

As a busy business owner or copy writer it can be both taxing and time consuming to produce regular original content. It requires thought, a modicum of knowledge and research, this is even before the task of writing begins.

Imagine the time and brain-juice that ChatGPT can be saved by requesting information, suggests, blogs or social media posts about a specific subject. It is a great tool to have at your finger-tips that can provide nuggets of information that you may not be aware of and you save the time of research and writing.

However, when writing marketing content, whether it’s an article, blog, social media post or a direct response to a client, it’s crucial to know your audience and use the right tone. Unfortunately for ChatGPT, you need to be human to understand nuances such as tone and preferences.

Similarly, an interesting article may feature ambiguities, events mentioned may be out of date or the information could have been taken from a disreputable website and be completed incorrect. Just as bad, large tracts of text could be a direct copy, leaving you open to charges of plagiarism.

The sheer technical brilliance and labour-saving benefits of using AI for monotonous tasks such as creating social media posts, cannot be denied. However, the (sometimes) unnatural phrasing and obvious ChatGPT format alert the reader to your use of the App, and removes any sense of engagement.

The answer is to harness the power of ChatGPT as a resource to assist a human. This could be by generating ideas or writing the entire article, but a real live person needs to review and edit every piece of text before it is published. This can be as little as making sure the information is correct or to rewriting in the right corporate tone, or simply presenting the posts in less obvious ChatGPT format.

Pros of ChatGPT

• Automate repetitive tasks
• Improve customer engagement
• Save time
• Improve content quality
• Increase productivity

Cons of ChatGPT

• Inaccurate information
• Ambiguities
• Doesn’t know audience interests or demographics
• Limited knowledge of recent events
• Plagiarism
• Ethical issues

HOW TO SECURE YOUR WEBSITE CONTENT

It is important to remember that ChatGPT is trained using website content, learning from all of the information, from product descriptions to articles and even reviews.  In simple terms, they scrape information from other websites (like yours!).

WHY YOU MAY WANT TO BLOCK CHATGPT

There are lots of reasons why you may want to block ChatGPT from accessing the content on your website.

• Plagiarism: Firstly, there is the issue of safeguarding your intellectual property rights, no one likes to have original content stolen.
• Reduced SEO-ranking: There is also the real danger that your content will be used without your permission and to add insult to injury, when reproduced it will become duplicated content. This can hurt your SEO-ranking.
• Privacy: There are also privacy issues at stake, some of the content maybe sensitive and to be seen by authorised eyes only.
• Reduce server load: If you have a large website, as ChatGPT crawls your website is may impact upon the functionality of the site.

STEPS TO SECURE YOUR WEBSITE CONTENT

1. Implement robot.text files to stope ChatGPT crawlers and bots
2. Only allow authorized users to view your site.
3. Add a Captcha to your website
4. Prevent bots from indexing with the Noindex Meta Tag
5. Add copyright protection

By the way, this article was not written with the help of ChatGPT!

If you would like information about Redline’s copy writing services, please get in touch on [email protected].