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Copywriters, are you feeling the machines breathing down your necks yet?

by marciayudkin
10 replies
I've claimed for a long time that copywriting is a skill that can't be mastered by machines or taken over by low-charging hordes in Third World countries.

A blurb in the Feb. 2012 issue of Entrepreneur motivated me to check up on the progress of a company called Automated Insights (Automated Insights), which takes data and turns it into supposedly readable articles. According to Entrepreneur, they've now created more than 400 grammatically perfect websites and 700 Twitter feeds.

If you go to their website, you see that their pitch is that they turn information into insight.

What's really weird is that they don't offer any samples of their machine-generated content on their website. (At least I couldn't find any.) So I couldn't readily assess their claim to be producing humanly interesting material - not junk for search engines.

The company's founder confesses:

The main advantage of today's usage of software writing is to automate repetitive types of content. This is less applicable for books. In the near term, the writers at O'Reilly and elsewhere have nothing to worry about. But I wouldn't count out automation in the long term.
All in all, an interesting little detour from today's to-do list, but my conclusion is that copywriters are still safe from robots (unless you write robotic copy!).

Marcia Yudkin
#automated #breathing #copywriters #feeling #machines #necks
  • Profile picture of the author DustonMcGroarty
    Hey Marcia - this is definitely interesting. I missed that blurb somehow. I can see how machines could take content, merge it together and make it grammatically correct.

    But how can they take a problem in a market and write a sales letter selling a product that fixes this problem WITHOUT any human input?

    I'm not worried...yet!
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  • Profile picture of the author Doceye
    Interesting stuff. But generated content is no threat to us copywriters for the foreseeable future.

    At least not until we reach the point where implantation of A.I. (chips, nanobots, etc.) into flesh and blood people becomes palatable. They're already testing this, and some think wide roll-out is only a decade or so away.

    In the meantime, copywriters still must tickle prospects using some assemblage of the Seven Deadly to get them believing what we're waving in front of their noses scratches their particular itch.

    Machine-generated copy will only ever appeal to or make act something that is, at least in part, a machine itself.

    "We're not computers, Sebastian, we're physical."
    (Blade Runner, 1982)
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  • Profile picture of the author sethczerepak
    Machines that can write are no threat unless they can think too. A good copywriter is paid to think like a salesperson, not just to write. If not for that, we could all be replaced by college students.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Copy Warriors
    Well, I think any writer whose job it is to fill an article with keywords for search engine purposes with readability as a secondary concern should be nervous. But anyone whose content is meant to be engaging and interesting shouldn't worry; there is a lot more to hooking an audience's attention than just having perfect grammar.
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    • Profile picture of the author videolover7
      Obviously you folks have never watched Star Trek.

      Doctor Noonien Soong would take issue with your conclusions.

      VL
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    • Profile picture of the author sethczerepak
      Originally Posted by Andy Button View Post

      Well, I think any writer whose job it is to fill an article with keywords for search engine purposes with readability as a secondary concern should be nervous. But anyone whose content is meant to be engaging and interesting shouldn't worry; there is a lot more to hooking an audience's attention than just having perfect grammar.
      Exactly.

      As Edison said at the dawn of the industrial age:

      "One machine can do the work of 50 ordinary men, but no machine can do the work of one extraordinary man."
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  • Profile picture of the author ASCW
    First of all. That software pertains to only articles, and content.

    Which leads me to believe you are confusing copywriting with content/article writing.

    Which is like comparing basketball to baseball. Both are sports that have teams, and use balls. But they are not even close to the same thing.
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    If you want help with copy stuff, pm me.

    Cool.

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  • Profile picture of the author BarryADensa
    Templates, automated sales letters, etc., etc. will always appeal to those looking for a commodity, a quick fix, and a cheap and easy way out.

    But how does a program interpret needs, wants, desires so that the message conveyed strikes an emotional chord? How does a program create a personality?

    How can a program have a conversation longer than SIRI can answer a question?

    When a program can write from the heart, then, we have all lost heart and hope for a meaningful human experience and existence.
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    Barry A Densa - Freelance Marketing & Sales Copywriter - WritingWithPersonality.com

    Download a FREE copy of my new eBook, containing 21 of my most outrageous rants, when you visit my blog: Marketing Wit & Wisdom

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