What is guided artificial intelligence?

Imagine that you have a junior employee.  They are an amazing wordsmith.  It’s a natural talent for them and they can craft eloquent sentences in seconds. They can redraft anything and change the length, tone, voice and reading level with a snap of the fingers.  In addition, they write headlines, accompanying social media posts and weave in search engine phrases as simply as calculating 2 plus 2 equals four.

But… this employee desperately needs your help.  They lack some serious storytelling expertise.  For starters, they have no idea what to write about and they need hard cold facts to get started.  They could draft a story out of thin air but who knows if it would be accurate. More so, the employee doesn’t know what’s currently trending and what to use to craft a lede that would draw the reader in.  Also, they need feedback. Lots of it. What to edit, what to improve, what tone to use and what voice to write it in.  They are kind of like a nine-year-old idiot savant. Tell them exactly what to do and then they do it amazingly well.

ChatGPT, JasperAI and other artificial intelligence tools will produce shockingly amazing content but an expert storyteller needs to direct it what to do.  That’s guided artificial intelligence.  It’s content that’s AI-powered, a collaborative result between AI language models and human users.  Some people call these human users “AI-powered content creators” but they are so much more.  Like a director on a movie set, they are instructing the AI model to shape and create the content in a certain way. Check out this blog, completely written with guided artificial intelligence to see what it can do.

Here are some things to consider when working with artificial intelligence to create content.

What’s the story, morning glory?
First and foremost, consider what the story is about and its angle. You can certainly go into ChatGPT or JasperAI and tell it to write a 1000-word blog on how to purchase an SUV but give it more than that.  Ask it to consider the car’s style, color, speed, usage, make, and model.  Think about how much storage someone needs, legroom and different options. You can tell it to consider and write about all those things or just focus on three or four.  As the AI director, first determine what the real purpose of the story is and what you want the reader to walk away knowing, feeling and doing. Then give the AI tool your goals and a few details, and then ask it to draft an outline. Work with the tool to revise your outline to perfection then ask it to write the blog. Once it gives you an initial draft, it’s time to edit.

Change is good for the soul
Just because AI comes up with some ideas doesn’t mean you need to go with them.  I often find myself chatting with the AI saying things like, “That was great!  Now change [this section] to reference [something else] or reorganize [this section] to start with [this sentence] and end with [this sentence].” This is your chance to improve on what the AI has done.  Think of it this way: you’ve told your junior employee to create an outline based on what you discussed for them to write about.  They’ve come back to you with a draft, and now it’s your responsibility to edit. Whether it’s the outline, the story itself or the even the social media posts – editing is where the real magic is done and it requires a storytelling expertise that the AI doesn’t have.  It will only do what you tell it to do. Editing is also the best way to make the copy yours and not a duplicate of something else that’s out there.  While you’re at it, work with an SEO expert to weave in search terms that will make your blog more discoverable.

Just the facts, ma’am.
It’s important to tell your AI tool the facts of the story. If you don’t, it will try to pull from its databases and fill in the gaps. Sometimes, it can give you inaccurate data. That’s why you get the little warning message when logging into ChatGPT that the information could be incorrect.  Just like a Wikipedia article that makes some false statements, somewhere along the way someone told the AI tool something that was wrong.  It’s best for you to add your facts and ask the AI tool to write around them.  Also, just like you have to follow up with your teenager after you’ve asked them to clean their room (they just dumped everything in the closet, didn’t they?), you have to double check what the AI tool spits back out to make sure it’s what you gave them in the first place.  Here’s what happens when you don’t check things – read this story about a lawyer who used AI to write a legal brief and it cited cases that didn’t exist.

Are you talking to me?
As with any communication, you need to keep the audience in mind.  What’s their reading level? What are they interested in?  Is it a professional exchange of information or something much more casual? Where would this blog end up?  In the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, or Rolling Stone magazine?  Who would write this blog?  Bob Woodward, Howard Stern or Harry Potter?  All things to consider when drafting AI-powered content and things you can tell the AI tool to take into consideration.

Never tell me the odds.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the risks of artificial intelligence.  It’s important to take into consideration where your story is going to post and what’s the risk level of using AI to draft your content.  Are you writing a review for your realtor who just sold your house?  AI is a great tool for that!  Are you providing medical information?  Well, you better have a physician take a look at it to make sure it’s dead on accurate. What people are going to use the information for plays a critical role in assessing the use of AI-powered content and the review that’s needed to make sure it’s accurate.  You don’t want to have someone’s car catch on fire because you used AI to write a blog on replacing a battery and didn’t have an expert review it. Just like you’d have a subject matter expert review something you wrote, make sure an SME reviews something the AI wrote.

You don’t own me!
There are lots of legal issues with artificial intelligence.  I’m not a lawyer so I am not going to advise you on any of the legalities around using artificial intelligence.  Here’s the thing I will say: if you have unique intellectual property, be cautious about pasting it into the artificial intelligence tool.

The Final Thought
You got this. You can do this!  My suggestion to you is open a ChatGPT window or sign up for a trial of JasperAI and try it out.  And if you need some help, feel free to email the Wizard.

Wal Ozello, The Wizard and President of Emerald City Agency, is a life-long storyteller with more than thirty years of experience in Communications and Marketing. His expertise is discovering what brand messages resonate with target audiences, then crafting strategies and content to make them believe and act. Need to speak with The Wizard?  Email him: oz@emeraldcityagency.com