Before diving into the details, let’s make it clear. There is not, and never will be any AI generated content on this site. That is, and will remain, our AI generated content policy.
The reason is simple. Thanks to Nassim Taleb for the following:
The Turing test
A computer can be said to be intelligent if it can (on average) fool a human into mistaking it for another human.
The reverse Turing test
A human can be said to be unintelligent if we can replace his speech (or content) by a computer and fool a human into believing it was written by a human.
Being unintelligent is not something we aspire too.
We are not perfect, but we always do our research and combine this with experience to try to present a view. We try to think about trends and what the future may bring. AI-generated content regurgitates and/or re-spins what already exists.
AI Content – The Latest Hype
Much of the latest commentary revolves around ChatGPT. Think of it as a ChatBot, plus, plus. It is an algorithm that generates text based on predicting language patterns after being pre-trained with a (very) large data set of existing documents.
ChatGPT is the latest iteration of a series of developments by the OpenAI project (to learn more visit the ChatGPT website). Its use cases are expanding rapidly, for example, Microsoft has announced that they will start integrating ChatGPT into Bing search in March 2023.
AI Generated Content – Our View
In our view search engines (in particular Google) have evolved from search engines to answer engines. Why? Because Google discovered that is what most searchers want. They want a quick answer, not the details.
We will avoid going down the rapid hole of a philosophical argument on why society, in general, has deteriorated to that level. Suffice to say humans have been laying the groundwork for AI to take over for some time.
If you search on Google you will generally find content that (at best) scratches the surface of a topic. If you want detail you need to go to Substack or Medium.
Is Google worried about ChatGPT as a competitor? In our view, it is naive to believe Google does not have AI products in development. Perhaps they are waiting to see how things play out.
We believe over time the market will develop. There will be Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo as answer engines. ChatGPT and its future derivatives could compete in this space.
There will be something else for those who want more depth and reasoned argument, something more human. That might be Substack or similar, or it might be something else. Brave is an outlier at present. It will be interesting to see how it evolves.
Content On OutsourcedMarketingServices
Hands up, we have been guilty of producing superficial content or content for SEO in the past. You will still find some of those posts on our blog, but we have moved on.
We now try to address a problem and comment on our thought processes as we work through that problem. From this thought process, we develop content. This takes considerable time and effort.
We have built a presence over time on Google and it is hard to leave, but at some point, that is what we will do. There is no place for us in the medium to long term on an answer engine.
Where we will move to and when is the issue? Will it be Brave, or Substack? Perhaps, but more likely, something else that has yet to arrive.
Throughout human history, there have been those prepared to investigate further. I wonder what is on the other side of that mountain, or over that horizon? Some brave soul decided – You know what, I am going to pack a bag or get in my boat and go look. AI looks back, not forward.
With all our faults, we will stick with being human. AI generated content is not for us. We are not dismissing AI-based products. They could be useful time-saving tools but not for content.