Rage Against The Machine
A topic close to my heart... and frustration button.
Rage Against The Machine.
This is how I wanted to title one of my latest client pieces. While it made my colleague laugh, he vetoed it. Understandably. Not SEO friendly at all, that title. The irony that the piece was all about AI taking over humans wasn’t lost on any of us. It was just the job we had to do. And so the piece was renamed: “11 Reasons Why Human-Centred Corporate Getaways Outshine AI-Powered Team Retreats”. A beauty, SEO-wise.
A CHILDHOOD DREAM COME TRUE
As a kid in school, I was always pretty good in French classes (I’m French), I loved writing, already then. I wrote all the time, about anything and dreamt of writing books when I grew up.
When it was time to take the French high school exam, we were given three options:
dissertation on a set topic
a text to dissect
creative writing on a set prompt
Among kids, word on the vine was never to pick creative writing. The urban legend was that teachers had no framework of reference to rely on when grading creative writing, and so it was always based on personal taste. We didn’t even really study that option during the school year.
And yet, for some reason, I felt called to choose that when the day came. I wrote something I remember being quite happy with. Feeling confident I ll earn good points there. Spoiler alert: I didn’t. French, which was supposed to be my “easy” subject, put me behind. I scored 9/20. The worst grade I ever had in that class. It definitely shook me and the tiny shred of confidence I had built around my writing. I never stopped writing, but I never wrote fiction again after that.
Twenty years later, I have written a whole book, and I write for a living. Granted, in English. But still, I think 18-year-old me would be proud.
ARE RULES THE ENEMY?
Recently, however, it has become increasingly less enjoyable to write for a living. More and more rules have slowly sucked the life out of it.
Everything is measured, structured and mathematical. It has to fit in a box that shrinks every other month with every new AI release. It started with the ideal length, the font of the titles, and the hyperlinks… today it’s just about writing for the crawler. Forget the reader.
I love writing because I love playing with words, and I love the endless possibilities words offer. To keep on the topic of school, writing always felt like recess: effortlessly (most of the time at least) because it was free. Now it feels like an 8 am maths test that never ends. And I have never liked maths.
With writing, there are tons of possible answers; with Maths, there's one, and you are asked to apply the correct formula. It sounds like giving a painter a “paint by numbers” set.
In life, I love rules and structure, but in writing, I love it even more that they can sometimes be set aside.
But if I thought SEO was bad for my mental health, I was not ready for the bulldozer destruction level Chat GPT was going to impose on style, creativity and my favourite of all, humour.
I suddenly woke up in a world where every word has been weighed, studied, and given a grade.
And yes, I do hear those who say constraints are a great way to encourage creativity. I can experience it myself… but that works best when you have the freedom of time, money, and headspace, not so much when you have to deliver on a deadline with bills to pay.
HUMAN POWERED CONTENT, AN ENDANGERED SPECIES
Like any normal person, when SEO and Chat GPT tsunamized (see ;-) content writing, I decided I was not going to participate. That lasted about 3 minutes.
How can I survive as a writer without jumping on the innovation bandwagon? I cannot afford to be left behind. And so I have learnt SEO copywriting, and I also checked out ChatGPT.
To be fair, ChagGPT was initially quite lousy, but it eventually improved and got better quickly, while I got worse. Or so it felt, and so science seems to say.
It felt like I was saving time writing basic pieces instead of wasting time writing good ones. There was even a time I felt I was losing pride in my work. The sad thing is, those pieces did well. They pleased the machine.
It has come to a point where I see articles online where the author hasn’t even bothered to edit the layout in which the AI-generated answer appears.
Just like designers, artists and many other creative jobs, I have seen less interest from potential clients. Who can blame them? For a subscription of £ 20/month, they can get unlimited content that will please the crawlers and all that, without having to deal with contracts, delays, sick leaves, and bruised egos.
And so here I am, sitting at the airport, writing freely for the first time in what feels like months, reflecting on the point of it all.
Do people read these Chat GPT pieces, or are they only there for us, content writers, to reference in our next Chat GPT piece?
6 reasons why, 10 ways to… key words key words key words.
Do people get something out of them? Is there still a need for human-powered content? I don’t want to go against progress. I understand the power of these tools and how tremendously they can help. But I’m not sure where we’re going. I don't want to be the typical boomer (I'm a millennial, hence the many !!!!) saying: “it was better before”, but I do miss recognising a writer’s style. I do miss reading something genuinely new that awakens something in me.
Writing only with AI for AI. Yes, we can do it, but does that mean we should?
This NEEDS a disclaimer.
I am still writing for a living (among other things). And I am so grateful for it.
I don’t want my clients, if they stumble upon this, to think I hate the work I do for them. I don’t. It pushes me to challenge myself to write pieces that follow the rules and still feel like me somehow. It's not easy, but it's a learning experience, and for that I can always be grateful.
I am also thankful that they still value the human over the machine. But for how long will they be able to afford that luxury? Is it worth fighting, or should I retire and write for my own pleasure if a time comes when I have no more clients?
And what about coliving, mam?
What does any of this have to do with coliving or community, you ask? Fair, not much. But maybe more than we first think.
It is easy to draw a parallel between grassroots, small coliving spaces like ours and large businesses with investors and substantial marketing budgets. Because, as usual, my favourite quote applies perfectly here:
There's something so human about taking something great, and ruining it a little so you can have more of it
Michael, Architect, The Good Place