Why is my AI Generated Content Rubbish?

If you’ve tried using ChatGPT to create content, chances are you’ve been less than impressed with the results.

Maybe it came out sounding stiff or generic.

So, why does this happen?

The Quick Answer: AI Struggles with Authenticity

AI-generated content often falls flat because AI lacks the personal insights and originality that make content feel authentic.

It can write sentences that sound OK, but without the depth of understanding and original personality, it often ends up bland.

Why Does AI Miss the Mark?

It Starts with How AI Learns

To understand why AI misses the mark, it helps to know how it learns.

Imagine you’re back in school.

You start with an objective, see examples, practise, get feedback, and improve over time.

AI is similar — but it learns on a much larger, faster scale, processing loads of data to spot patterns. This learning process is also largely automated.

So what’s the difference between humans and AI?

When we learn, we don’t just learn through consumption of information.

We also learn through our lived experience, which is something AI doesn’t have.

AI is only able to recreate the patterns it’s learned. So, while it can mimic human writing, it lacks the originality, personality and unique perspective that makes content feel genuine.

How Do You Make Great Content with AI?

To create better AI content, it’s important to know what makes content work in the first place:

• Clarity — Is it easy to read?

• Relevance — Does it speak to the reader’s needs?

• Structure — Can readers follow the flow?

• Authenticity — Does it feel real?

• Actionable Insights — Does it help readers do something?

AI can manage some of these, but as we’ve already discussed, it struggles with authenticity and originality because it can’t bring new ideas or personal insights to the table.

It simply reflects back what it’s learned from others.

In order to make great content with AI, you need to share yourself — your experiences, your perspective and insights in order to create authentic content.

How Do You Share ‘You’ with an AI Tool like ChatGPT?

First off, you need to establish what makes you, you — and that starts with how you write.

Writing Style

The way we write is unique — we all have our own little quirks that make our writing sound like us.

You need to understand how you write.

The easiest way to do this is by using the AI — give it an example of your writing — and ask it to create instructions for your own writing style.

This will help it to create content that sounds like you.

Vocabulary and Language

Each of us has our own vocabulary and language.

We’ve all got particular words that we favour over others, phrases and colloquialisms we prefer to use.

This shows up in our writing — and if we want the AI to make use of these, we’re going to have to tell it.

Culture, Literature and Art

To quote the great Gillian McKeith, “You are what you eat.”

You could say the same applies to the culture, literature and art — also known as content — we consume.

It shapes our thinking, who we are, our sense of humour.

Again, the AI isn’t going to know what content you like, so you’re going to have to tell it in order for it to make relevant references to the content you consume.

Your Life Experience

Each of our experiences of life will be unique and it shapes us as people. Everything from childhood, our education, our work, who we spend time with…

This makes us who we are.

Unfortunately, ChatGPT or similar tools can’t experience life the same way that we can — although, if science fiction is anything to go by, that’s probably a good thing! So you’ll need to share your life experiences with it so it can make use of them in your content.

How Do You Share This with an AI Tool like ChatGPT?

If you’ve been making notes, you’ll realise all of this is a lot of information.

Imagine for a moment that your entire life was captured in ultra high definition and stored on Blu-Ray DVDs.

By the time you were 30 years old, you’d need more than 320,000 DVDs to store it on.

Good luck storing all those DVDs without drowning in them!

Now imagine if you gave a person those DVDs, told them to watch them all and then write content from your perspective.

How would they feel?

Overwhelmed? Probably.

Similarly, if you presented all this information to AI in one go, it’d get overwhelmed.

Why Does AI Struggle with Too Much Information?

When you overload an AI tool like ChatGPT with too much information, it can lose focus, go off on tangents, and produce content that doesn’t hit the mark.

It’s a classic case of “poop in, poop out.”

Just because it’s AI doesn’t mean it won’t get confused with irrelevant input. The clearer you are, the better your results will be.

How to Make AI Content Sound More Like You

So, how can you get AI to produce content that actually sounds like you?

Here are some of the key things you need to do when you instruct an AI tool like ChatGPT to write content for you.

• Ask for the Right Expert — Be specific. For example, “a British copywriter.” This helps define the tone.

• Tell It Exactly What You Need — Is this a blog post? An email? Like most people you work with, AI isn’t telepathic.

• Explain Your Style — Show it a few lines of your own writing. This helps the AI tune in to your unique style and tone. It’s worth noting that how you write and your tone will vary depending on what you’re writing and the intended audience.

• Set the Structure — Outline how you want the content to flow. Should it start with a question? Should each point be separate?

• Add Personal Insights — If you want content to feel like it’s truly “you,” add your own anecdotes or ideas. AI can’t make those up.

• Ask It to Critique and Redraft — AI’s first draft often isn’t its best. Have it compare the output against your objectives, then refine.

Here’s an example prompt to help you get started.

You should fill in the sections in [square brackets] with your own information.

This prompt is a good starting point to help you to produce content that sounds more authentic, using ChatGPT or similar AI tools.

More Tips for Producing Authentic Content with AI

Here are some extra tips to keep in mind when you use AI to create content:

It’s Not an Expert

It’s worth remembering that the AI isn’t an expert — as a business owner, you’ll have your own expert knowledge.

So remember to use your noggin and think critically about anything the AI produces for you.

Ask yourself: “Is this factually correct?”

Facts and Statistics

While you can ask AI tools like ChatGPT to find stats and facts online to include in your content (well, with the paid version, anyway), it will eagerly respond with imaginary evidence if it doesn’t find or know of any.

It’s best to do your own research and supply it with information for better accuracy.

Harsh Critique

In the example prompt, we ask ChatGPT to harshly critique its own work against our instructions.

You can use this repeatedly throughout the drafting process to keep refining the content.

When you ask it to harshly critique its drafts, it’s a good idea to add your own observations about how its draft could be improved too.

This will speed up the process.

Closing Thoughts

Creating authentic content with AI is possible, but it needs guidance.

Try these tips next time you use ChatGPT, and see if it brings the content closer to your voice.

We'd love to know how you get on. Drop us an email at [email protected]