It’s been over 10 years since I made the decision to become a freelance copywriter. In fairness, it started off with blogging, the freelancing came later. Since then, I have created a small space for myself in the writing community. Sure, I’m not raking in the big bucks, but it is enough that I am not counting the pennies down the back at the sofa at the end of the month. That was true until recently as the effects of AI on the writing community have started to ripple out.
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Within the last 10 years I have written a history book, completed several writing qualifications, run a reasonably successful blog, and had the pleasure of writing content for websites around the world. I’ve even considered stepping into the world of teaching. Adding this all together, it’s safe to say that I bring plenty to the table. When I started, being a native English speaker was all you needed to create a healthy income for online content creation, but I don’t write only for the money, I write to express myself and make a connection to other people. And I wanted to be good at it, so I made time to study and learn what I could about my chosen career path. Over the years, the rise of content mills, companies whose sole purpose (and maybe their soul purpose too) was to churn out content to fill the endless web pages that we have access to on a daily basis, has devalued the work of writers. Within the last 5 years, I have gone from earning a healthy $100-$200 per article, to being offered $1 for 500 words. Yes, you read that right, $1. AI is to blame and I’m not mad about it at all.
The thing about being a historian is that you see things cycling around, and what is happening with AI is nothing new. During the Industrial Revolution, there was an outcry that people would be out of a job because of mass production created by machinery. However, if you look at the world today, there is a huge demand for handmade items. Blankets can easily be bought for $50 or less online are being sold on craft stalls for $400 or more because they are handmade. Original art can sell for thousands. Even cheese that is made in small batches is worth more than anything that has been churned out in a factory. The simple fact is that humans crave that human touch and mass produced anything does not have the value that companies are hoping for. This applies to what AI is doing to writing too.
Over the next few years, there will be an increase to the amount of AI written content that you will see, there is no doubt about that. What it will do is put an end to content mills who devalue the work of writers and artists in the name of profit. The thing is, people don’t want to read something that a computer has created. I know that you are probably imagining me right now, sitting at a desk in front of a laptop, cup of coffee beside me, a look of musing upon my face as I decide on the right words that will connect with you. The reality is that I am wearing my fluffy dressing gown, sitting on my bed with a messy bun, sipping my water while I question my life choices. You probably find it comforting. If you don’t, imagine that a computer went “boop boop beep” and created this instead. Doesn’t have the same effect, does it? There is something unsettling about it that makes your skin crawl just a little. Art in whatever form it takes needs to have a human element which is more than just feeding some keywords into a website and having a fully formed article or picture appear. Knowing that the people who create original content have had to stop what they are doing to tell the cat to stop aggressively licking their bits and pieces makes it more human. People need this connection. While it might be handy to have information about every subject on the planet created in a matter of moments, it isn’t enough. We constantly search for others’ opinions for validation or reassurance in order to navigate our own lives. AI cannot do this, and it never will.
AI is the way of the future. A lot of content will be automated. But those of us who create for reasons other than profit will have the way cleared for our artisan musings to be worth something once again. It will be uncomfortable for a while but I know that your curiosity about my cat is worth more to you than what AI is able to create. And for this, I thank you.